(Colin is not wearing any magical boots.)
You're going to need luck to jump over such a wide gap. Test your Luck. 1,3=4; Lucky!
'Have you come to save me?' says the fish-thing. 'I've been trapped in here by that blasted demon portal outside. My name is Piscis Austrinus, but most call me the Fish with a Thousand Voices. Others just call me Fish Face, but we won't go into that. I speak all known languages...I speak them but I don't always understand them. So forgive me if I sometimes seem to babble, dabble, double, apple, trouble. I work here in the temple translating ancient gnomes, sorry, tomes. Yes, tomes. Have you brought me a book from the library? (Colin has a book from the Library of Throff.)
You pass Piscis your book and he studies it.
'Ah, yes,' he says. 'Hither Chaos Angel Died. Marvelous book, marvelous, barbarous, bibulous, bibliophile. You found it. Very clever. To protect our library we disguised every book using magic, and gave them all the same title. We hoped it would fool our enemies and stop them from stealing our knowledge. Do you want to know what this book is really called? Hmm. I'll translate it for you...'
Piscis mutters some words over the book and sprinkles some drops of silver liquid on it. When he hands it back to you the title has changed. You see that it is really called The Book of the Dead.
'This was written after the traitor Ulrakaah turned against us,' says Piscis. 'It contains much useful knowledge, if you know where to cook, sorry, look. I have used my skills on it and you should be able to easily read it now. But you do not have time to read the whole thing. It's over a thousand pages long...'
(There's an option to ask him which part of the book we should read before leaving, which I know we'll take.)
'I can translate books, but I rarely read them,' says Piscis. 'I'm afraid I don't know which part of the book will help you. You need to find Sinna the Sly, a freebooter who came here recently. He knew which pages you need to read, but could never find the right book. Whereas you have found the book but don't know the page! That would be funny if the whole world wasn't about to end.'
If you want nothing more then you should go,' says Piscis. 'There is no time to lose. I am too old to go jumping about, and forgive me if I have said this before, but I have a pair of magical Flea Boots if you need them. Wear them and you, at least, should be able to get easily over the portal, even if I can't.'
(If you don't already have a pair of magical boots, put on the Flea Boots and add them to your Equipment List.)
You leave the wet room, climb the steps, leap over the portal without any trouble and go back into the Walkway of the Dawn.
Where to now?
Adventure Sheet
Colin Hunt
SKILL: 11/11
STAMINA: 9/18
LUCK: 4/11
Equipment: Traveling Clothes, Lucky Anchor Charm, Silver Ring, Bier Goggles, Flea Boots
Vials of Smoke-Oil: 0
Gold Pieces: 18
Weapons: Lord Azzur's Khopesh (+1 Attack Strength, extra +1 attack/damage vs. demons), Temple Guard's Axe (+1 Attack Strength, +1 damage on doubles rolled in combat), Fire Iron (-1 Attack Strength)
Items: Fishhook, Jar of Healing Ointment (+4 STAMINA when used), Poison Antidote, Silver Trowel, Map of Trolltooth Pass, Flask of Firewater, Bronze-Colored Jewel, Cold Sausage, Cookbook, The Book of the Dead
Compasses: Brass Compass, Silver Compass, Bronze Compass
Provisions: 2 meals (+4 STAMINA when eaten each), Dates (+3 STAMINA when eaten)
Keys: Icefinger Key
Magic Potions: 'Collywobbles', 'Dragon's Breath,' 2 bottles of 'Nostalgia' Perfume, 'Pretty as a Picture,' 'Thick as Thieves'
Magic Seeds: 3 Seeds of Mastery, Seed of Doubt, Seed of Treachery, Seed of Destruction, Seed of Change
Running Total of Bad Puns: 2
Bum-Faced Monster: Bum-Faced Monster.