Votes registered; reaching for the book titled
A Sting in the Tale: A Collection of Unexpected Endings, and drinking the Greater Healing Potion, since there were votes to do so.
239
You remove
A Sting in the Tale: A Collection of Unexpected Endings from the shelf. There’s a
click and something shifts. Before you can investigate it, a GIANT SCORPION emerges from behind a bookcase and, tail raised and stinger shining, it skitters towards you.
GIANT SCORPION SKILL 10 STAMINA 10
If you win, turn to
373.
The fight:
Round 1: Giant Scorpion Attack Strength: 20, Player Attack Strength: 19
Helmet Roll: 4, Giant Scorpion Stamina: 10, Player Stamina: 13
Round 2: Giant Scorpion Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 21
Giant Scorpion Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 13
Round 3: Giant Scorpion Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 21
Giant Scorpion Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 13
Round 4: Giant Scorpion Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 20
Giant Scorpion Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 13
Round 5: Giant Scorpion Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 21
Giant Scorpion Stamina: 2, Player Stamina: 13
Round 6: Giant Scorpion Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 18
Giant Scorpion Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 13
Icarus Morningstar manages to kill the Giant Scorpion with the ornate dagger, but takes a lucky hit of 2 Stamina damage that the Aeronaut’s Helmet does not block.
373
With a shudder, the Giant Scorpion curls up and dies. You cut off its stinger and carefully store it in your bag. (Add the stinger to your Equipment List. It can be used to coat your weapon with poison for one battle only; however, your weapon will cause 1 extra point of damage with every successful hit for the duration of that battle.)
Now you can investigate the
clicking noise you heard before the creature appeared. You test the bookcase and find that part of it now swings back, revealing a set of wooden stairs spiralling downwards.
Taking care, you head down. Turn to
292.
292
You descend a couple of floors and then come to a dingy tunnel. It’s lit with small torches. Someone’s been this way recently.
You move ahead. Suddenly there’s a
whooshing noise at around head height.
Test Your Skill. If you are Successful, turn to
34. If you are Unsuccessful, turn to
248.
Rolling the dice yields a 6, which means that Icarus Morningstar is Successful, to nobody’s surprise.
34
You duck and roll as a blade swishes over your head. You might have got a slight haircut, but otherwise you’re unharmed. You wonder why anywhere in the Citadel would need such a trap to protect it.
You’re still wondering this as you walk forward and get slightly scorched by a fireball spat out by a statue embedded in the wall. (Lose 1
STAMINA point.)
Make that traps.
You move ahead extremely cautiously. Turn to
210.
210
There’s a small robed figure standing at the centre of the circle
There’s a strange green light emanating from the area ahead. You can hear indistinct muttering and see a large shadow on the wall. You grab a flickering torch from the wall with one hand, keeping your weapon drawn in the other.
You enter the room ahead and can see four large storm crystals at the four compass points of a circle, which are covered in arcane runes, and other miscellaneous objects. You hold up the torch and see that all the storm crystals are broken. There’s a small robed figure standing at the centre of the circle. It turns and raises its hand towards you. A strange device on its wrist shoots out a net, which closes around you tightly. You’re not going anywhere.
Your attacker shuffles closer and you realize it’s Vizigg, the Goblin Elder Technomancer. He looks in a bad way, and there’s blood all over his robe.
He peers at you. “Where did you come from?”
You tell him that you came from the surface and you’re here to bring those who caused the crash to justice.
He begins to laugh. Turn to
272.
272
Vizigg laughs so hard that he has to sit down to regain his breath.
”Well, you’ve found them, Officer. I’m the one who brough the Nimbus down. But believe me, if I had not done so, things would’ve been a lot worse for Pangaria. These measures I took might have been extreme, but they were necessary in order to protect our archipelago and the world beyond.”
You ask him what happened.
“You have taken a great risk in coming down here, and I’m sure it was no easy task, so I will assume that your intentions are honourable. As you are aware, Officer, I helped maintain the technomancy that keeps Pangaria aloft. When I retired, I kept my honorary title, but Krazic, one of my brightest and most ambitious apprentices, eventually became Chief Engineer, responsible for the day-to-day running and maintaining of the technomancy.
“I received word that Krazic had been taking an interest in Commander Mathias Talliman, a survivor brought to Incus from a wrecked Khullian warship. Together they had hatched a plan to use the secrets of Pangarian technomancy to develop weapons of war within Krazic’s private workshop in the Nimbus.”
You tell him that you have discovered some of this yourself, during your investigations.
Vizigg looks impressed. “Then you are a better Sky Watch officer than most!” He fiddles with his wrist contraption and the net loosens and retracts, returning to the sheath on his arm. You rub some feeling back into your limbs.
If you have the Codeword
Boreas on your Adventure Sheet, turn to
98. If not, turn to
284.
Icarus Morningstar does not have the codeword Boreas on his Adventure Sheet.
284
Now it’s your chance to ask the ancient Goblin a few questions.
To ask what has befallen him, turn to
11. If you want to ask him why the Nimbus crashed, turn to
82. If you want to ask about the ward on the Great Hall door, turn to
338. If you want to ask what Vizigg is doing with the broken storm crystals, turn to
59.
Please make your votes before 7:00 PM PDT or a choice receives 3 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.
Adventure Sheet
Icarus Morningstar
SKILL: 11 INITIAL SKILL: 12
Bathysphere SKILL: 11
STAMINA: 12 INITIAL STAMINA: 20
Bathysphere STAMINA: 2
LUCK: 10 INITIAL LUCK: 12
ITEMS:
Clothes
Backpack
Lantern
Hovers
Calming Potion
Coin Bag
Methedus’s Shard
Aeronaut’s Helmet (+1 SKILL, can go above Initial level, -1 damage taken on a roll of 5 or 6)
Hand Axe
Incus Ledger Page
Fire Oil (3 STAMINA damage to opponent if used at start of battle)
Corrosive Grapes
Strange Brass Rod
Silver Goblet
Potion of Power (+2 Attack Strength for one combat, +3 STAMINA)
Waterproof Firesticks
Conch
2 Potions of Might (+2 Attack Strength for one combat)
Copper Ring
Stinger (+1 Damage dealt for one combat)
GOLD: 13
PROVISONS:
None
WEAPONS:
Short Sword
Ornate Dagger (+1 Attack Strength)
War-Hammer (-1 Attack Strength, +1 Damage dealt)
Crab Pincer (-1 Attack Strength, +1 Damage dealt)
CODEWORDS:
Hazi
Bubble
Nimbi
HOME ISLAND: Cumulus
RESURRECTION USED: No