The Gatekeeper accepts the money and looks curiously at you. "Just a little
extra," you mutter. "Business seems rather slow these days..."
"So it is," the Gatekeeper mumbles in a more friendly tone as she spirits away
the money. "Many thanks, Lady!"
You are about to correct her when you realize that you feel more different
than you noticed at first. Looking down at your strangely garbed body it finally
hits home: It is not just your clothing and equipment that has changed - you
yourself have been turned into a woman! At least you're still young...
You shake your head and head for the gateway, feeling slightly nervous.
"Wait!" the Gatekeeper calls after you. As you turn back to look at her you
see that she's holding a small bundle wrapped in cloth. "Perhaps you would like
to have this," she adds. "Someone... left it."
"Who?"
"Someone who... Came Back!"
You are about to ask another question when you notice that you are already in-
side the gateway and it's starting to close! Making the same observation, the
Gatekeeper tosses the bundle to you through the door, and as you catch it you
realize it's heavy!
You stagger backwards into the darkness as the doors crash shut in front of
you, and something tells you this is just an entrance - the exit must be found
elsewhere! As the cloth slips off your newest possession you find yourself hol-
ding... a small jade statue of a young wolf!
Great, just what you need in a place like this - another piece of bric-a-brac!
Still you decide to keep it as a reminder that someone has Come Back from the
Labyrinth, so there may be hope for you too. After wrapping it up again and
putting it in your pack you start exploring your new location.
As your eyes adjust to the gloom inside the mountain you find that you are
standing in a pretty big hall with exits in four directions - none of them bear-
ing the slightest resemblance to the gateway you just passed through! Okay, five
directions if you count the stairs leading down through a hole in the middle of
the floor, but that one seems to be guarded by... a troll? It seems rather
friendly though, and not like it's going to attack you or anything.
"Morning, Miss," the troll rumbles. "Or is it evening? Hard to tell in
here..."
Still rather unfamiliar with the new way of being address you just stand there
blinking a bit while searching for something to say.
"Yeah... Miss!" the troll repeats. "I'm not the kind who goes around ladying
chicks who ain't proved themselves. Tell ya what, come back here when you've got
a thousand Experience, and I'll not only call you Lady, I'll let you down-
stairs!"
"What's down there?" you ask intelligently. Well, it sounds pretty intelligent
to you anyway.
"Why, Level Two of course! Don't you know anything?"
You just stare at the troll while fumbling for words, and he stares back for a
while before he speaks again.
"Hey," he says thoughtfully. "Don't tell me you're like that last chick who
came through here? Real weirdo, that one. Claimed she was really a man from an-
other world who fell through a reality warp and turned into a woman when she
came here!" After a pause he adds: "Please - say you came walking up the road!"
"I came up the road," you answer quickly. After all he just asked you to say
it, not to verify that it's true! Besides you figure it's only half a lie anyway
- if the spot outside the temple is somehow equivalent to the spot where you
fell into the reality warp, you did at least come up the path! Besides you feel
weird enough as it is without a troll verifying it!
"What happened to that weirdo anyway?" you ask curiously.
"Same as the others," the troll relates. "Passed through here a couple of
times, then went downstairs when she had enough Experience. Never saw her again.
It's a one way exit."
You look throughtfully down the stairs. "Only way out?"
The troll nods. "And to go downstairs I need...?"
"A thousand Experience. Sounds a lot but it's not that hard really."
Experience. Silver Pieces. You suddenly realize how this world sounds like one
of those games your cousins used to play when the family gathered for the mid-
winter rites. For a moment it occurs to you that your whole life is just a game,
then the feeling passes.
"So what do I do now?" you ask intelligently.
"Pick a direction, any direction," the troll says and starts pointing them
out. "North. East. South. West. And, eventually, Down."
You ponder the four exits you are allowed at this point. They look about as
anonymous as their names, but you notice a sweet smell coming from the west and
a kind of salty smell coming from the east.
You have a couple of choices again.
1) Search the room then pick
a direction below.
N) Go north.
E) go east (salty smell).
S) Go south.
W) Go west (sweet smell).
This is branch point LEVEL1.
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