Votes registered; going to the mill.
261
You make your way around the edge of the market, heading towards the mill. The ground begins to rumble beneath your feet. Market-goers start sprinting for cover and before you can ask what the fuss is about, the only shopkeeper left nearby shouts “RUN!” before quickly pulling down the wooden shutter on his shop with a loud
clonk.
If Dav is with you, turn to
399. If Dav is not with you, turn to
311.
Dav is with Icarus Morningstar.
399
“Uh-oh!” says Dav in response to the ground trembling beneath your feet. “Something’s on its way and it’s BIG! I smell a fight coming!” He reaches into a small bag at his waist and tosses you a small bottle of purplish-coloured liquid.
“Take this. It’ll give you a little extra oomph.”
You see the earth bucking and cracking as something burrows through the soil towards you, sending market stalls flying.
Hands shaking, you gulp down the liquid. A warm, tingling feeling washes through your body, right down to the tips of your fingers. You feel your strength growing. (Add 3
STAMINA points to your total, even if this takes it above its
Initial level, and add 1 point when calculating your Attack Strength for this fight only.)
As the feeling surges through you, a huge worm-like creature erupts from the ground. It seems to have no eyes, but it makes up for that with the number of glistening fangs it has in its huge, gaping mouth, which is heading straight for you.
“Give it hell!” yells Dav.
TUNNELLER BEAST SKILL 8 STAMINA 9
If you win, turn to
289.
The fight:
Round 1: Tunneller Beast Attack Strength: 13, Player Attack Strength: 21
Tunneller Beast Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 20
Round 2: Tunneller Beast Attack Strength: 16, Player Attack Strength: 20
Tunneller Beast Stamina: 3, Player Stamina: 20
Round 3: Tunneller Beast Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 20
Tunneller Beast Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 20
As expected, Icarus Morningstar and Dav flawlessly slaughter the Tunneller Beast.
289
With an enormous shudder, the creature crashes to the ground. Slowly the market-goers return and start poking at the huge corpse.
“Nice work, Officer!”
“Do you think this can be roasted? Stewed, maybe.”
“Worth a try!”
The stallholder cautiously raises his shutter.
“Well I never, you got it! Here, take some dried stink fruit and silk cloth on the house.”
(You can add the silk cloth and the 2 dried stink fruit to your Adventure Sheet. The dried stink fruit will restore up to 2
STAMINA points each when consumed.)
You keep heading on for the mill. Turn to
64.
I will leave the choice on which items to take to a vote.
64
The mill is quiet when you reach it. Perhaps the workers were sent home after the explosion. You look up at the windmill. There’s no breeze, so the sails are still. There’s a loud
whooshing sound and what looks like a mini cyclone emerges from the structure. Before you know it, you’re flung on to the ground (lose 2
STAMINA points) and find yourself being pulled across the ground towards the swirling mass. Turn to
104.
104
The whirling mass lifts you higher into the air. Higher and higher. Even if you had charge left in your hovers, they wouldn’t help you in the midst of this chaotic wind.
You struggle and flail against the invisible force. Then suddenly you’re falling. You expect to feel the crush of the cold, hard ground, but instead you’re caught in mid-air by ethereal arms.
The figure floats to the ground and places you down safely.
“I’m sorry about that,” says the figure. “I had no idea anyone was out here, and the storms can be quite temperamental, especially at the moment.”
You’re being addressed by a Stormborn – one of the intelligent wind spirits that create and harvest crystals within the storms that rage across the Sea of Tempests. The figure, who you rightly assume to be Methedus, waves his hands through the air like he’s conducting an invisible orchestra and the cyclone slows its whirling and glides towards the windmill. It spreads out over the sails and they creak into life.
“How may I help you, Officer?”
You tell Methedus that you’re looking into what happened at the Nimbus.
“We Stormborn were very concerned by what happened,” he says sadly. “All of us who live and work in Pangaria felt it in every fibre of our beings. That means the amount of elemental energy released must have been immense. Many storm crystals must have been broken.
“Of course, we tried to reach the Nimbus, but although we can pass safely through the storms that surround it, there is a warding spell around the island preventing Stormborn from entering. Someone clearly doesn’t want us interfering.”
(Write the codeword
Bubble on your Adventure Sheet.)
If you have the storm crystal shard from Cirrus, turn to
5. If you do not have the storm crystal shard from Cirrus, turn to
205.
Icarus Morningstar does not have the storm crystal shard from Cirrus.
205
Before you go, Methedus passes you a small crystal. It looks like a blank version of the one you have in your hovers.
“You might need this. You seem like the type that gets themselves into trouble. There are a lot of nasty energies around and this will withdraw them from an infected creature, just as long as it’s not too far gone. Once an animal’s been taken over entirely, the crystal won’t work. One use only, I’m afraid.” (Add Methedus’s shard to your Adventure Sheet and 1 point to your
LUCK score.)
If you want to look for Hazi on the other side of the market, and haven’t done so already, turn to
351. If you want to find the local Goblin flyer and head for one of the other islands, turn to
27.
Icarus Morningstar has already looked for Hazi on the other side of the market, so he will decide to find the local Goblin flyer and head for one of the other islands.
27
You follow the signs towards where you would expect to find Cumulus’s Goblin flyer, but as you near the dock, you can see no sign of it. At first you think it must be traversing one of its routes, but then you hear a plaintive “Help! Help! Anyone?
Anyone?"
You peer over the edge of the dock and see the Goblin pilot hanging off the edge of some rocks below. The goblin looks very relieved to see you. “Could you possibly give me a hand here?”
You pull the Goblin to safety and she introduces herself as Daxa.
“That Nimbus explosion completely took out my flyer,” she explains. “Blew it right down into the ocean. Luckily, I managed to jump out when I did, or I’d probably be in some Great White Squark’s belly by now!”
You explain that you were hoping to visit the other islands.
“Well, until I get another flyer, you won’t be able to get to Incus or Asperitas,” Daxa says, sadly. “But I’ll charge your hovers for free and that will get you to Cirrus or Altos. You can take the flyers from there.”
She points to a long bridge nearby, half shrouded in clouds.
“Normally you could take the Sky Bridge to Cirrus, but it’s been closed due to some unnatural disturbances around the bridge at this end.” Daxa explains. “Of course, if you can deal with that, I’d be happy to reopen it, especially as my best aeronaut’s helmet got through there during the crash. If you can make the bridge safe again, then the helmet is yours.”
If you want Daxa to charge your flyers for free and fly to Altos, turn to
342. If you want Daxa to charge your flyers for free and fly to Cirrus, turn to
320. If you want to investigate the Sky Bridge to Cirrus and see if you can find the aeronaut’s helmet, turn to
233.
Please make your votes on what to do next and what items to take from the stallholder before 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 3 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.
Adventure Sheet
Icarus Morningstar
SKILL: 12 INITIAL SKILL: 12
STAMINA: 18 INITIAL STAMINA: 20
LUCK: 12 INITIAL LUCK: 12
ITEMS:
Clothes
Backpack
Lantern
Hovers
Healing Potion (+4 STAMINA)
Dav (In Combat, +2 Attack Strength, +1 Damage Dealt, and -1 Damage Taken)
Calming Potion
Coin Bag
Small Jar of Healing Honey (+3 STAMINA)
Dried Fish (+2 STAMINA)
Dried Cuttlefish (+2 STAMINA)
Methedus’s shard
GOLD: 13
PROVISONS: 0
WEAPONS:
Short Sword
Ornate Dagger (+1 Attack Strength)
CODEWORDS:
Hazi
Bubble
HOME ISLAND: Cumulus
RESURRECTION USED: No