Free The Cauldron of Fear by Joe Dever

mist towards your chest, but your psychic defence disperses this evil swirling cloud. The creature howls with frustration. Maniacally it hurls itself at your throat, a pitted iron spike clenched in its fist.
    Psi-ghoul: COMBAT SKILL  20    ENDURANCE  30
    Owing to your mastery of the psychic disciplines, add 2 points to your COMBAT SKILL for the duration of the fight. If you wield the Sommerswerd in this combat, you may double this undead creature's ENDURANCE point loss.
    If you win the combat, turn to 87 .

167
    Your quick reactions, coupled with your Kai Mastery, save you from being detected by the approaching cavalry. Using your skill, you calm your startled horse whilst simultaneously repelling the large but harmless savannah snake coiled about its foreleg. Minutes later the cavalry pass by, oblivious to your presence.
    Turn to 213 .

169
    Your horse rears up and leaps across the body of the dead Cave Leekhon, its senses ablaze with the choking, rancid odour of the Leekhon's spilt blood. Banedon's steed follows close on your heels as you race through the tunnel, heedless of the many obstacles strewn in your path. Suddenly you emerge from the suffocating passage into the chill evening air: you have escaped. From the slopes of a wooded hill you stare down at a tiny village called Varta, perched on the edge of the Tahou flats.
    The flats comprise fields of cultivated crops that form a fertile market garden two miles wide. They are farmed right up to the banks of the great moat that encircles the capital. Varta is deserted: its male inhabitants now shelter within the city walls, whilst the women and children have since travelled south to the safety of Navasari. As you ride through the empty village and descend onto the flats, you catch your first awe-inspiring view of the ancient city itself.
    Turn to 100 .

172
    Using your weapon to avoid touching their evil-smelling bodies, you flick open the satchels slung over each of their shoulders. They are filled with all manner of items looted from the village. You tip the contents out and discover:
Enough food for 6 Meals (Meals)
Dagger (Weapons)
Sword (Weapons)
Silver Candlestick
Lantern 8
Brass Whistle
Blanket
Silver Goblet
Silk Jacket
Torch
Crystal Decanter
    Unless otherwise indicated, the articles are Backpack Items. If you wish to keep any, remember to make the necessary adjustments to your Action Chart . You remount your horse and follow Banedon as he heads off along the track that leads out of the village.
    Turn to 63 .
    [8] The Lantern is designed to be self-lighting. You will not need a Tinderbox or any other means of creating a flame to light it.

175
    The climb to the arch at the top of the stairs is a slow and laborious one. Each step is as tall as a young tree, and the smooth, black stone offers few handholds. Several hours slip by before you reach the summit. There you stare down through the great archway at a stupendous sight.
    Illustration X —Two massive statues of dragons flank the wide avenue that leads from the archway to the city.
    The streets and buildings of an ancient civilization lie before you, disappearing into the gloom of a titanic chasm of immeasurable size. Ziggurats and towers, their carved walls cracked and crumbling, lean at impossible angles, having sunk into the soil over the centuries. This is Zaaryx, the legendary metropolis that was once home to a race fathered by Nyxator — the greatest of all dragons. It is the only city to have survived the Age of Chaos that followed the demise of their race.
    A wide avenue leads from the archway to enter the city at a place flanked by two massive statues of dragons sitting on their haunches with their stone-fanged mouths agape. You stop to rest here and you must now eat a Meal or lose 3 ENDURANCE points. (If you possess the Magnakai Discipline of Huntmastery, you are able to forage for food from the wasteland of Zaaryx and therefore you do not need to make any deductions.)
    You are about to set off