You are marching along without a care in the world when you suddenly notice how quiet it has grown around you - much too quiet…
Suddenly, a large flock of crows swarms up right in front of you. More from intuition than conscious thought you jump aside behind a rock…
From the mountain ahead, an avalanche of rocks comes thundering down! The dust in the air blinds you, stones are careening through the air…
the dust settles… a giant boulder rests where you were standing scant seconds ago…
As far as you can tell, you are now about ten miles north of Rybon. Somewhere around here should be a sign of the Daspota treasure.
Right. You can see where something was dragged across the ground. Careful searching reveals some traces of blood on some protruding twigs. Only a few steps further you see a willow weave which fails miserably to conceal a cave entrance.
do you
Remove the weave and enter the cave?
Turn back and continue your journey?
Causeway
The path you are on runs across a narrow causeway of at least two hundred paces in length but no more than two spans wide. On both sides the ground falls away quite steeply for at least 20 [N] paces…
[NAME] refuses to go any further!
Nobody dares to go any further, so you will have to
Turn back.
Rest in front of the causeway.
Do you
Cross the causeway on hands and knees?
Cast “Bambaladam”?
Encourage one of your fellows?
You reach the other side of the causeway and from here on you can move normally again.
Treacherous pathways
The path you are on turns more and more into a maze of treacherous pathways winding between towering boulders.
do you
Try to keep the direction as well as you can manage?
Or try to avoid the entire maze?
After hours of scurrying between the rocks of the maze you finally find yourselves back on a path worthy of the name.
You keep your general direction and manage to avoid the maze by clinging to a narrow ledge above the rocks.
You leave the maze - and find yourselves right in front of a steep cliff face, quite obviously a long way off course.
You reach the head of a small pass. From here you can see for miles around… at least you can see enough to tell that you are a long way off course and have no idea how to find your way back either.
You wander about rather aimlessly for hours, until you reach the correct path again quite by accident.
Try as you might, you simply cannot get a bearing. Frustrated, you stop and set up camp.
After a rest you set out with renewed optimism and succeed without any further problems to reach the mountain path from Rybon to Thoss.
Chasm
The path comes to an abrupt end at a raging stream rushing through a chasm about fifteen paces deep and four paces wide.
do you
Jump the chasm?
Climb down and wade through the stream?
Climb across hanging on a rope?
[NAME] reaches the other side and is safe.
[NAME] doesn’t quite make it to the other side and disappears in the bubbling water.
The stream is cold as ice and more than once you get thoroughly soaked. By the time you reach the opposite bank, you are all completely drenched and have to make camp before you can go any further.
One of you will have to jump across first. So, who’s the lucky one?
Did it! You throw [NAME] a rope and climb across hand over fist.
[NAME] reaches the opposite bank. Safe!
What a disaster! Now what?
Harpies
Screeching dementedly, four harpies swoop down on you out of the lead grey sky.
do you
Fight?
Flee?
About a dozen of the disgusting looking creatures are perched on the rocks above you. They are a distinctly unpleasant mix of half bird and half woman that is quite insulting to your senses. Suddenly, [N] of them plunge down and attack!
do you
Fight?
Flee?
Foggy Valley
An oval shaped valley of tremendous size opens before you. It is covered with a thick white fog that makes it appear as if the valley is filled with a sea of milk.
do you
Try to forge straight ahead through the mist?
Or try to walk along at the edge of the valley?
You can hardly see a hand in front of your face. The icy fog enters your clothes with cold, deathlike tentacles, but after seemingly endless hours, the path goes uphill again and you leave the valley of mist behind you.
You let the rock-face guide you along. Every now and then, you find yourselves at a dead end, but finally you do manage to climb back out of the mist and leave this eerie valley.
You are wandering blindly through the mist, and soon you are quite lost.
I don’t think that was such a good idea, actually. You seem to be stumbling ever further into the valley - not that you could say that with any certainty…
You stumble about quite a while until you get back on the right track by pure, fortuitous accident and leave this valley of mist behind.
Try as you might, there is no way to tell where you are or where you are going. In the middle of the impenetrable mists you set up camp.
After a decent rest you miraculously manage to find a way out of the fog in seemingly no time at all.
Deep Chasm
The mountain path has been running alongside a chasm for some time now, getting narrower all the time. As if that weren’t bad enough, the chasm is getting deeper…
[NAME] refuses to go any further!
No one dares to walk another step, so you’ll have to
Turn back.
Set up camp.
Do you
- Blindfold your teammates and guide them along?
- Cast “Bambaladam”?
- Or do you just hope they will calm down?
You reach the end of the narrow ledge without mishap. The path changes course here and you can continue without problems.
Mountainside
Looks like you are in for a climb. There is a steep mountainside ahead and you cannot see any obvious way to pass it by.
do you
Climb?
Try to find another route anyway?
It takes quite some time until you find a softer slope that is easier to traverse. You decide to climb down here and brave the obstacle within another half hour.
After a lot of trouble and a full eight hours’ effort, you find a way to pass the obstacle by without climbing, but this detour has cost you a lot of time and supplies.
The going is extremely hard, but you finally reach a point where you can rest and prepare yourselves for the remaining climb.
[NAME] slips and falls. Good thing you are all secured by rope.
Suddenly a boulder gives way and [NAME] is caught in a rock slide.
High above you, you can see a cave entrance that can be reached via a well trodden mountain path. You climb up the hill just to make sure there’s nobody up there waiting to attack you from behind.
You are in front of an obviously occupied cave.
do you
Explore the cave?
Turn back and continue on your way?
There is a path up the hill to a cave here.
do you
Visit the cave?
Journey on?
Rock Face
The path you were on, if you can actually call it anything like that, ends in front of a steep cliff face. It is at least forty paces straight up from here, but at least there is a small ledge halfway where you could rest.
Do you
- Climb up the rock face?
- Try to find a way past this obstacle?
It takes quite a number of hours to find a facade that is any easier to climb up. You decide to ascend here and reach the plateau safe and sound about one hour later.
Despite all your searching, there isn’t a decent way up to be found. In the end, you march one whole day straight west and manage to avoid the obstacle via a cross valley.
With a lot of effort, you finally reach the mesa.
[NAME] falls, but is caught by the rope. Phew, lucky escape.
A rock gives way under [NAME]’s foot, causing quite a serious fall.
Unfortunately, the spell fails.