The Legacy of Vashna (27 page)
Read The Legacy of Vashna Online
Authors: Joe Dever
Tags: #Fiction, #Fantasy, #Lone Wolf, #Magnamund
As soon as the stable boy has saddled Bracer, you mount up and leave the inn at a gallop. You decide to forgo sleep this night and begin your journey north without further delay. Shortly past midnight, you pass through Helgor's ruined East Gate and head off along a rutted track that winds a northeasterly route towards the River Storn. The moon is full and this rough trail is illuminated clearly by its cold, ashen light. Far to the north an electrical storm is brewing. Flashes of forked lightning light up the horizon and the sky, and the hills echo to the rumble of distant thunder.
You have covered little more than ten miles when the trail gradually peters out. You continue on across soft heathland for a few miles further until you find another trail, muddier than the first. Fresh tracks are imprinted in its surface, leading off towards the northeast. Curious as to their origin, you dismount and take a closer look.
Pick a number from the
Random Number Table
. If you have Grand Huntmastery, add 1 for every Kai level you are above the rank of Kai Grand Guardian to the number you have picked.
If your total score is now 4 or less,
turn to 307
.
If it is 5 or more,
turn to 256
.
The horse refuses to approach the trees so you dismount and tether him to a boulder before investigating the wooded gully on foot. Beyond the perimeter of trees you discover a clearing where a score of shallow graves are clustered in a circle. You scrape away some of the stones and earth from the nearest grave and uncover the corpse of a man clad in mouldering red robes. A black hood trimmed with skeletal insignia identifies him to have once been an Acolyte of Vashna. He and his brothers were attacked, robbed, and murdered by the brigands when they passed this way some weeks earlier. This clearing is where they disposed of the bodies.
If you wish to search the robes of this corpse,
turn to 199
.
If you wish to leave this crude graveyard and return to the trail,
turn to 156
.
As the acolyte immediately before you in the line steps into the arch, your Sixth Sense screams a warning of imminent danger.
If you wish to ignore your Kai senses and step through the arch,
turn to 130
.
If you decide to follow your senses and refuse to step through the arch,
turn to 28
.
You are awoken in the middle of the night by the she-cat's nervous growl. At first you think that a new day must already have dawned for the cave is awash with bright light, but when you look out at the surrounding landscape you see that the light has a far more sinister origin.
The sky is alive with hordes of glowing, wraith-like phantoms. They swoop down from the roiling storm clouds and skim the treetops, howling and screeching like angry banshees. A trio of these ghastly apparitions passes within a few yards of the cave mouth and startle the wild cat and her mewing cub. Terrified, they flee the cave and disappear into the pines.
If you possess Kai-screen and have attained the rank of Kai Grand Guardian or higher,
turn to 283
.
If you do not possess Kai-screen or have yet to attain this Kai rank,
turn to 19
.
Time passes and you sense flashing motes of light streaking past your closed eyes, and faint far away sounds come dimly to your ears through the howling wind. Then, as suddenly as it began, the sensation of falling ceases and you feel yourself lurching forwards onto wet, rocky soil. Rain spatters your face and, when you open your eyes, you see that you have returned to Magnamund … and to terrible danger.
‘Kill him!’ It is the voice of Arch Druid Cadak. You have emerged from the Shadow Gate and now you lie on the ground between the great shimmering arch and Cadak's crystal dais. You have only just found your feet when a growling horde of vengeful acolytes close in upon you, eager to fulfil their leader's wish.
Illustration XX—A growling horde of vengeful acolytes close in upon you.
Acolytes of Vashna:
COMBAT SKILL
40
ENDURANCE
45
If you choose to use the Deathstaff as your weapon during this fight, you may add 10 to your
COMBAT SKILL
.
17
If you win the combat (using the Deathstaff),
turn to 26
.
If you win the combat (without using the Deathstaff),
turn to 324
.
[17] The Deathstaff is not one of the classes of Weapons that Kai Lords receive training in, and as such Weaponmastery or Grand Weaponmastery bonuses may not be available for it. Alternatively, you may decide that you can add the Grand Weaponmastery
COMBAT SKILL
bonus if you possess Grand Weaponmastery in Quarterstaff or Spear (cf. Section 77 of
The Deathlord of Ixia
where the Deathlord ‘slashes with the sharp tip of the Deathstaff at your face’).
Using your formidable mind skill, you create a protective wall around your will which deflects the woman's psychic power-charm. Her spell rebounds and the suddenness of this reversal completely overwhelms her senses. In an instant the light vanishes from her eyes and her face becomes blank and expressionless, like that of a mask of a mindless automaton.
You slay all but one Jackal. This bruised and blood-spattered cur flees from the shore, defeated but determined not to suffer the fate of the others. You pause to wipe the sticky gore from your weapon; then you mount your horse and set off along the rugged shoreline, foregoing the shelter of the horseshoe boulders in case the Jackal should return in the night with more of its ferocious brothers.
Fortunately, you soon reach firmer ground and, by nightfall, you come to a sheltered cove where you find a warm hollow in which to set up camp for the night. Unless you possess Grand Huntmastery, you must now eat a Meal or lose 3
ENDURANCE
points.
To continue,
turn to 296
.
As the last of the Vakovarians falls dead at your feet, you step away from their heaped bodies and wipe the sweat of battle from your bloodied brow. You have slain the enemy but you can hear more of their kind stumbling across the boulders, eager to reach you and avenge the deaths of their brothers-in-arms.
You retreat into the copse, using your Magnakai skills of Invisibility to keep you hidden from the advancing brigands. In their clumsy eagerness to enter the trees, they fail to notice you slip through their lines and circle around behind them. You have outwitted them but you are still anxious that they may find your horse. You move to higher ground in order to get a better view of the copse and, from a vantage point among the boulders, you observe their leader and three of his henchmen hiding nearby, crouched behind the bough of a fallen tree.
If you possess a Bow and wish to fire an Arrow at the Brigand leader,
turn to 304
.
If you possess Kai-alchemy and wish to use the spell
Mind Charm
,
turn to 212
.
If you decide to wait and observe these brigands a little longer,
turn to 98
.
As you approach the trough, you feel the token getting hotter in your pocket. Your Magnakai skill of Nexus protects you from the heat, yet it does not prevent the glowing token from setting your tunic alight. Immediately you smother the flames but the resulting smoke causes a commotion among the acolytes following behind.
If you possess Kai-alchemy and wish to use it,
turn to 86
.
If you possess Grand Huntmastery and have attained the rank of Sun Lord, and wish to use your Discipline,
turn to 237
.
If you have neither of the above or choose not to use them,
turn to 186
.
Suddenly, the raging winds cease and you fall unconscious to the floor of the dais. When you awaken you discover that you are entirely alone. The collapse of the Shadow Gate and the whirlwind which followed have consumed everything, save yourself and the crystal dais: no acolytes, no trace of the grand archway, no Deathstaff, not even the storms remain. Virtually all trace of Cadak's evil plan has been wiped from the surface of your world.
Congratulations, Grand Master Lone Wolf. You have triumphed. You have defeated the plan to resurrect Vashna and saved Magnamund from his rule of terror. But the fight against Evil is not yet over. The collapsing Shadow Gate destroyed everything it consumed … everything, that is, with one exception. That exception returns to haunt you in the next Grand Master adventure, entitled:
The Deathlord of Ixia
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