hundred yards of the rock-face when you discover a large fissure — the entrance to a cave. In your eagerness to escape from the bitter wind you quickly enter and, in the darkness, fail to notice the crevasse that divides this cave in two. In a tumble of ice and stone, you fall head-first into the dark.
Turn to 240 .
318
You can sense that the Baknar is desperate for food. Your Kai Discipline will be useless, for you will not be able to order it away from the camp now that it has detected the Kanu-dogs. However, you know that Baknar are fearless hunters, fearless except when it comes to one thing — fire. Grabbing a torch from a pile of equipment, you light it and race out of the tent. It is dark and snowing heavily, but a movement to your right betrays the Baknar as it lopes towards you. It is preparing to pounce when the sight of the guttering flames makes it shriek with terror. A second later, it has turned and disappeared into the night.
The Kanu-dogs are safe, but to make sure that the Baknar does not return, you agree to take it in turns to sit watch with a torch and a weapon.
Turn to 134 .
320
You manage to hang on to the struggling child, and remove a bone dagger from his boot to prevent him stabbing you in the back.
The Ice Barbarians have drawn themselves up into a circle around you, but they dare not attack while you are holding one of their children as a hostage. Holding the bone dagger to the child's throat, you slowly inch your way towards the sledge. You soon realize that you will never be able to outdistance them on a loaded sledge. You will have to think of something — and quickly.
Illustration XVIII —The Ice Barbarians circle around you but they dare not attack while you hold one of their children as hostage.
If you wish to cut the equipment loose, free the Ice Barbarian child, and escape on the unloaded sledge, turn to 190 .
If you wish to cut loose the equipment but keep the boy with you as a hostage during your escape, turn to 33 .
324
As the vile Akraa'Neonor dies at your feet, you glimpse the hunchback descending from his platform and scurrying off towards a distant door. You turn to chase him but freeze when you see the body of Loi-Kymar lying motionless below. He is dead, killed in psychic combat with the traitor. With anger welling up inside, you raise your weapon and sprint after Vonotar, now intent upon his death.
The door leads to a long corridor, at the end of which is a curtained arch. You tear the curtain aside and continue on your chase.
Turn to 61 .
325
The next morning arrives bright and windless. The sun pierces the thin layer of cloud, bathing the east in a soft pink glow. This beautiful vision reminds you that your Kai masters once told you that the light of Kalte is unlike anywhere else in Magnamund. With tent and equipment packed, you leave the pass and venture out onto the Hrod Basin; one hundred miles of open ice now lie between you and Storm Giant Pass.
At first, the journey is easy. The Basin has been worn smooth by the wind and no crevasses lurk unseen beneath the hard, dense snow. But at dawn on the third day, events take a turn for the worse. You are awoken from a deep sleep by Dyce shaking your shoulder. He is frightened. ‘What's wrong?’ you ask, still bleary-eyed and sleepy.
‘Ice Barbarians … on the horizon. Twenty, maybe more. Five wind sledges and a warrior escort. I think they've seen us.’
In an instant, you have all climbed out of your sleeping furs and begun to pack away the tent. Dyce is correct, they are Ice Barbarians and they are heading towards you from the west. ‘If they catch us, we're as good as dead,’ says Fenor, as he ties the last of the equipment to the sledge.
The Ice Barbarians of Kalte are a fierce and war-like race of nomads. For thousands of years they have travelled this icy wasteland, trapping furs and herding mammoths. Their only contact with the rest of Magnamund is through the trading post of Ljuk. In
Turn to 240 .
318
You can sense that the Baknar is desperate for food. Your Kai Discipline will be useless, for you will not be able to order it away from the camp now that it has detected the Kanu-dogs. However, you know that Baknar are fearless hunters, fearless except when it comes to one thing — fire. Grabbing a torch from a pile of equipment, you light it and race out of the tent. It is dark and snowing heavily, but a movement to your right betrays the Baknar as it lopes towards you. It is preparing to pounce when the sight of the guttering flames makes it shriek with terror. A second later, it has turned and disappeared into the night.
The Kanu-dogs are safe, but to make sure that the Baknar does not return, you agree to take it in turns to sit watch with a torch and a weapon.
Turn to 134 .
320
You manage to hang on to the struggling child, and remove a bone dagger from his boot to prevent him stabbing you in the back.
The Ice Barbarians have drawn themselves up into a circle around you, but they dare not attack while you are holding one of their children as a hostage. Holding the bone dagger to the child's throat, you slowly inch your way towards the sledge. You soon realize that you will never be able to outdistance them on a loaded sledge. You will have to think of something — and quickly.
Illustration XVIII —The Ice Barbarians circle around you but they dare not attack while you hold one of their children as hostage.
If you wish to cut the equipment loose, free the Ice Barbarian child, and escape on the unloaded sledge, turn to 190 .
If you wish to cut loose the equipment but keep the boy with you as a hostage during your escape, turn to 33 .
324
As the vile Akraa'Neonor dies at your feet, you glimpse the hunchback descending from his platform and scurrying off towards a distant door. You turn to chase him but freeze when you see the body of Loi-Kymar lying motionless below. He is dead, killed in psychic combat with the traitor. With anger welling up inside, you raise your weapon and sprint after Vonotar, now intent upon his death.
The door leads to a long corridor, at the end of which is a curtained arch. You tear the curtain aside and continue on your chase.
Turn to 61 .
325
The next morning arrives bright and windless. The sun pierces the thin layer of cloud, bathing the east in a soft pink glow. This beautiful vision reminds you that your Kai masters once told you that the light of Kalte is unlike anywhere else in Magnamund. With tent and equipment packed, you leave the pass and venture out onto the Hrod Basin; one hundred miles of open ice now lie between you and Storm Giant Pass.
At first, the journey is easy. The Basin has been worn smooth by the wind and no crevasses lurk unseen beneath the hard, dense snow. But at dawn on the third day, events take a turn for the worse. You are awoken from a deep sleep by Dyce shaking your shoulder. He is frightened. ‘What's wrong?’ you ask, still bleary-eyed and sleepy.
‘Ice Barbarians … on the horizon. Twenty, maybe more. Five wind sledges and a warrior escort. I think they've seen us.’
In an instant, you have all climbed out of your sleeping furs and begun to pack away the tent. Dyce is correct, they are Ice Barbarians and they are heading towards you from the west. ‘If they catch us, we're as good as dead,’ says Fenor, as he ties the last of the equipment to the sledge.
The Ice Barbarians of Kalte are a fierce and war-like race of nomads. For thousands of years they have travelled this icy wasteland, trapping furs and herding mammoths. Their only contact with the rest of Magnamund is through the trading post of Ljuk. In
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