The Gaming Den

119 Curious, you press your ear against the cold slightly convex wall. Behind the rough stone you hear a single deep murmur. You knock against the unyielding stone several times but to no avail. Even heavy blows with your fist make only a muffled, almost imperceptible, sound. After a dozen attempts, each as useless as the last, you stop.

If you want to turn towards the bars, turn to 292.
If you want to wait, turn to 149.

292 The bars are rusty in places, but they appear sturdy. Instinctively, you grab one of the horizontal bars and try to shake it. It does not move at all.

Only an arm's length away from the bars, a narrow artificial rivulet runs through a murk-encrusted gutter in the stone floor. From your cell, too, a similar channel springs from a tiny hole.

If you want to bring all your strength to bear on ripping the bars from their anchoring, turn to 271.
If you want to touch the water, turn to 121.
If you want simply to watch for now, turn to 196.

121 The cold water is murky and brackish. Sometimes garbage and excrement float past. Despite this, you manage to overcome your disgust and feel around in the gully. In the mud of a washed-out hole your search is rewarded. It is a rusty knife, a shank of notched iron barely attached to a half-rotted wooden handle.
If you want to take it, write it down as a Knife (Weapon, Hit Bonus +1) on your adventure sheet.

Turn to 196.

196 You pace up and down along the bars of your cell, attempting to get a better look at the far edges of the corridor and into the neighboring cells, but you cannot discover anything unusual. Then you hear the scratchy whispering voice of a man in a cell somewhat further off. "Hey! Are you awake?"

You're still considering what to answer when the old man continues. "My name is Leonar. Why are you in the Shadow Tower?"

Before you can reply, the connected door to the dungeon wing is slammed open.

Turn to 214.

214 You hear a piercing shout: "Over! Not talk here!" It is the broken speech of a Gartak. Now you recognize the stench! You must not take lightly these creatures, bred for aggression, especially when their masters, the magicians of Tul-Sar-Mar, the archaic Lizard Fortress, are near.

A moment later, the squat Gartak stands before you, his scimitar drawn, and looks you up and down. His grimy black pelt reeks of rotted fish. A bunch of keys jangle at his belt. He appears to be the warden. His broad vacuous grin complemented by disgusting brown tusks triggers your rage.

If you want to seize the Gartak and pound him against the bars, turn to 204.
If you want to ask him why you're here, turn to 287.
If you want to ignore him, turn to 144.

204 Instantaneously, your claw darts between the bars, pinning the head of the surprised Gartak and smashing him repeatedly against the merciless metal. As the Blackpelt helplessly waves his short sword, the blade catches in the bars and breaks. After you heave him against the bars for a fourth time, the Gartak finally slides down with a faint moan and comes to lie face-down in the gully.

If you want to take the key ring and free yourself, turn to 125.
If you want to leave the motionless Gartak and wait, turn to 158.

125 You reach out as far as you can, pull the Gartak to the bars, and grab the key ring. After several attempts you find the right key and open the door. To be safe you drag the unconscious guard into the cell and examine him thoroughly. Apart from his short sword and badly worn leather armor, you don't find anything. Unfortunately, the Gartak's broken weapon is of no use.
Write down the Warden's Key Ring (Utensil) on your adventure sheet.

Turn to 215.

215 "Impressive! These Gartaks are really tough, aren't they?" You hear a raspy voice commenting from one of the cells. Turning around, you see a gaunt man with shaggy grey hair and a beard standing behind the bars of his cell. He salutes you with military precision. "Come over here, let us talk!"

A moment later he bends over in a bad coughing fit.

If you want to talk to the old man, turn to 296.
If you want to escape through the connecting door, turn to 192.

296 The gaunt old man clutches the bars with his wrinkled hands as if, should he let go of them, he would collapse. His gaze is lowered, and you are shocked to realize that he has been blinded in both eyes. Burn scars disfigure his face.

"Good, very good! Haven't met anybody from Kyphi for a while." He pauses for a moment and asks dismissively, "You do come from Kyphi, don't you?" A severe cough continually interrupts his thin voice. "Tell me, were you nabbed at the front too?"

You are on the verge of answering when you hear more suspicious sounds coming from outside the door.

"Careful, we have visitors!" your fellow inmate warns you. Lying on the floor again, he explains in a whisper. "Hey, don't get the notion of freeing blind Leonar! I'll never manage to get away from this rock of death anyway."

If you have the Warden's Key Ring and wish to free the prisoner nevertheless, turn to 219.
If you want to comply with his wishes and leave him in his cell, or if you do not have a key, turn to 273.

pragma wrote:Free the prisoner. It seems like a good guy thing to do.

219 Although Leonar continues to protest quietly, you unlock the door to his cell. He hesitates for a moment, but then the blind old man decides to flee with you. "Wait, I have to take something with me," he murmurs into his shaggy beard, while digging through the straw under his cot.

He lifts one of the floor tiles and takes out a leather pouch. "You're right. A warrior should stand by his comrade in every danger." Somewhat unsteady, he totters behind you up to the heavy door of the dungeon hallway.

Turn to 227.

227 As quietly as possible, you close the door behind you and your companion. Together with Leonar, you are standing in a curved hallway. You hear the crackling of burning torches and the unappetizing snore of a Gartak. He is probably fast asleep in the guardroom at the end of the right corridor. You turn left, but Leonar holds you back. "That won't help. It's a circular corridor! Sooner or later we have to get past the stinker."

You nod in agreement and together you turn right.

Turn to 109.

109 Together you run towards the guard room. A moment before you reach the musty room, Leonar holds up his hand and stops. Placing a finger to his pursed lips, he points at the snoring Gartak.

If you want to creep up on the guard and eliminate him, turn to 184.
If you want to wait, turn to 146.