The Eye of Winter's Fury (61 page)

or
: Your crystal armour is unharmed.

(Note: If your crystal armour is shattered, you no longer benefit from its ability/powers for the remainder of the combat.) When you have made your decision, turn to
602
.

432

‘Well, I got three left, as yer can see.’ The man folds his arms, looking proudly along the row of sleds. ‘I’ll cut you the best deal I can, but I’ll be straight with yer – there’s no one else gonna be selling sleds in Ryker’s – so you can love it or lump it, your choice.’

If you wish, you may purchase one of the following sleds (Note: you may replace an existing sled with a new one, but all sled upgrades will be lost):

(Remember to record the details of your sled on the second part of your hero sheet.) You may ask about sled upgrades (turn to
322
) or explore the rest of the compound (turn to
106
).

433

Your eyes dart to the paladin’s stash, and its promise of food and water. Life for Anise. You drop your weapons by your side, letting your anger subside.

‘I see you have supplies,’ you gesture to the pack. ‘We are hungry. We have another with us, a girl. We desperately need food and water.’

Skoll glares at you questioningly, probably sensing some ruse on your part. His hand is still gripped tight around his axe.

You catch his eye. ‘For Anise,’ you whisper.

The paladin nods. ‘I have little, but enough to restore your party’s strength. If I may?’ He is still watching the Skard, awaiting his reaction.

‘Thank you.’ Your words are meant for the both of you. Your insistent stare is only for Skoll.

The warrior grumbles something next to you, some curse in Skard. But there is no conviction to it. His shoulders are slumped, resigned to surrender.

‘Food,’ he sighs. ‘One meal.’ His eyes flick to the bird. ‘Then that cursed thing can eat me for all I care.’

Maune moves towards his pack, patting the bird as he passes. ‘Come. Let us attend to your needs, then. The One God provides for all.’ Turn to
21
.

434

You squeeze through the narrow space, your eyes adjusting quickly to the gloom. Thankfully, the tremors appear to have stopped – for now.

After several hundred metres, the crack widens into a rubble-strewn opening. Clambering over the rocks, you freeze when you hear voices from the cave ahead. Cautiously, you creep forward to get a better view.

You have emerged in a natural cave, with a high ceiling dripping with glowing stalactites. A group of goblins are gathered around an area of rubble to the left of the cave. The largest is grunting with exertion as he squeezes his arm between a space in the rocks.

‘I is almost there,’ he mutters, sweat and grime glistening on his yellow-green skin.

Two of the smaller goblins are trying to pull away the surrounding stones, without a great deal of success. A fourth is cowering underneath a dented shield, casting wary glances at the ceiling.

Across the other side of the cave is a slope leading up to another tunnel. Reaching it shouldn’t be too difficult with all the rocks and boulders strewn across the room.

435

You crash down onto hard-packed earth, sending clouds of red dust billowing into the dry air. Spitting out a mouthful of dirt, you roll over onto your back, eyes scanning across crimson skies and the torn wreckage of your surroundings. Flames lick around the burnt hulks of metal machines, their shape and function alien to you. Oily waters lap close to the sandy shore, its wide span overshadowed by a broken bridge, its twisted girders bent like broken fingers.

‘Wake up!’ you croak, coughing on the dry dust. ‘All I need to do is wake up.’

A noise. A clatter of metal.

Long spindly fingers close over the torn wreckage. Then a pair of pale arms twist into view, pulling a thin body behind them. The demon is little more than a skeleton, its skin drawn tight over ragged bone. There is no face. Instead, a wedge-shaped mask of mirrored metal is nailed to its head – smooth and featureless, save for your own terrified visage staring back at you.

‘She won’t thank me for this,’ hisses the now-familiar voice. ‘But your soul is too tempting. Too delicious. Playtime is over, and now it’s time to feast!’

You hear the crash of shifting debris. Frantically, you glance to your right, to see two ugly, scaled brutes clambering onto one of the wrecks. They have wide toad-like faces, their fat bodies bubbling with giant pustules. You watch in revulsion as the pustules grow bigger, then one of them bursts, depositing a squirming reptilian creature onto the soil. Another breaks open, releasing a second. These small parasitic horrors rise up on bowed legs, tongues licking between sharp fangs. More are starting to appear, squirming to free themselves from their toad-like hosts.

You drag your attention back to the demon. It is crawling towards you, its mirror-like mask reflecting the tortured landscape. ‘Look, look and see,’ the demon jeers. ‘The end of all worlds, the end of everything!’ It is time to fight:

	Special abilities
	Endless tide : At the start of each combat round after the first, each seeper will produce another parasite, with the same stats as above. If a seeper is reduced to zero health , they can no longer produce parasites – but any parasites already in play will continue to attack.
	Sinister arts : Each time you take health damage from Insidious you must sacrifice an unused ability of your choosing or else take an extra 5 damage, ignoring armour . A sacrificed ability cannot be used for the remainder of the combat.
	Parasitic pests : At the end of every combat round, you must take 1 damage, ignoring armour , from each parasite currently in play.

To win the combat, you must defeat all opponents (including any parasites currently in play). If you are able to defeat this menacing horde, turn to
771
.

436

You feel a buzzing sensation emanating from your backpack. Opening it up, you discover that the book
Hergest’s Hauntings
has started to glow with a ghostly white light. Quickly, you flick through the pages until you arrive at a section labelled Ryker’s Island. Following the author’s directions, you uncover a loose stone in one of the nearby cells. By pulling it out of the wall, you reveal a secret crawl space.

You scramble along the tunnel, until it widens into a jagged cleft of black rock. The floor is panelled with iron, leaking sickly-yellow vapours through open vents. The putrid smoke seems to be coming from a hidden room below. Despite your best efforts, the grilles cannot be removed. Instead, you focus on the cleft itself.

Ahead is an area that looks like a nest. Dirty rags and gnarled bones
form makeshift bedding, on top of which are various pilfered items, some looking half-chewed. As you are about to investigate further, you hear the pattering of tiny feet behind you . . .

A swarm of white rats are scampering over the rocks, their albino-red eyes glowing with an insatiable hunger. Each rat has a number stamped on their hind-quarters, suggesting they might have once been test rats. Frantically, you ready your weapons and prepare to take on the frenzied host. It is time to fight:

	Special abilities
	Disease : Once you have taken health damage from a rat’s damage score, you must lose a further 2 health at the end of each combat round, ignoring armour . (You can only be inflicted with disease once.)
	Outnumbered : At the end of each combat round, you must take 1 damage from each surviving opponent, ignoring armour . This ability only applies while you are faced with multiple opponents.