Inferno! – Attempt 1, Part 3

Inferno! – Attempt 1, Part 3

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After I give my decision, Foxglove looks at me ‘imploringly’ but my resolve remains firm!  I studiously ignore the ‘evil smile’ that crossed Cassandra’s face.  Its probably the same smile she gets while watching the final of Eurovision.

I get to ask further questions of Cassandra.  I can choose between :

1. Where in the Rift is Glaivas being held?
2. How many Dark Elves are in the Rift?
3. Where are her companions Tyutchev and Thaum?

I’m sure she won’t give me a straight answer to (1), and (2) is essentially going to be ‘a lot’.  So I ask about her partners in crime.

She mentions that Thaum needed to be healed / resurrected after our last encounter, and the expense left him a pauper.

Aw, cry me a river you crazy murderer.  I get to ask another question, so I enquire about Glaivas’ location.

For what its worth, Cassandra says that Glaivas (no mention of poor Dore) is being held in the ‘Forbidden Sanctuary’ beyond the ‘seventh tier’.  The Black Widow’s web supposedly reaches out from the hub in that area.

‘Forbidden Sanctuary’, hmmm?  Second cousin to the ‘Forbidden Zone’ in Planet of the Apes, no doubt.

Cassandra then mentions an interesting nugget of information: apparently, when I reach the third tier, I should take the ‘narrow way’, because the Way of Thrones has been baited with a trap.

Wow – truth, bluff or double-bluff?  I’ll have to decide later.

It would be certain death for my friends to imprison Cassandra, as well as being contrary to my undertaking, so I let her go.

Unfortunately, I don’t ‘let her go’ like Schwarzenegger ‘let’s go’ of Sully in Commando – while holding him by his ankle over a cliff.  Heh.  Thirty years ago and it still makes me chuckle.

There is then a laughable choice of whether to try and rescue Glaivas or to leave him to his fate.  Well, I guess I could fire up season six of Game of Thrones, get a bottle of Glenmorangie…

Yeah, right.  I’m both the protagonist and the hero – rescue mission, here I come!

The book also unnecessarily pricks my conscience by reminding me that Glaivas and his rangers came to my aid in the recent battle against the Legion.

Apparently I can’t ask another to share with me the danger of the Rift.  Um, didn’t this whole disaster occur because Dore asked Glaivas to ‘share the danger’ of the original expedition?

Anyway – I suppose that’s a good example of why its a bad idea.

I take with me my Scepter and one other useful artifact, being the Torch of Lumen, an artifact which, when ‘lit’ provides an ongoing magical source of light.

Gwyneth, once again, gets delegated with the task of guarding the city while I’m gone.  I’m thinking of how Mary Jane always had to mind the proverbial store while Spider-Man got to swing around and be a hero.

For reasons best known to the book, I sneakily make my sneaky way to the northern side of the Rift.

I reach the edge of the chasm, managing to avoid the magicians who are presumably on the watch for me.  There’s a delightfully atmospheric description of my surrounds, including words like ‘rank’, ‘sulphur’, ‘barren’, ‘dandelions’…..yeah, I might have invented that last one.

As I look at the chasm I see what passes for a road, which is presumably used for bringing up siege machines and other delightful contraptions.  There are also stairways and fissures honeycombed over the way down.

Which way to go down?

A question for another time.

Stats: Endurance : 20, Punch Modifier : +2, Kick Modifier: +3, Throw Modifier : 0, Fate Modifier : +1, Inner Force : 5

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June 22, 2016 at 07:31AM