Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Planet Of The Dragons CHOICE Map
 

CHOICE #1, Page 13
-Head for hills, Page 32:  Go to CHOICE #2 (CLEAR)
-Smoking building on plains, Page 19, 4, 17, 5:  Go to CHOICE #8 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #2, Page 32
-Footpath, Page 22, 29, 60, 31, 46, 74:  Go to CHOICE #3 (CLEAR)
-Spheres rising into sky, Page 76, 99:  Go to CHOICE #6 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #3, Page 74
-Return to life pod, Page 98:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, small hope of rescue, distress signal is not faster than life)
-Look for deuterium, Page 40, 59, 37, 62:  Go to CHOICE #4 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #4, Page 62
-Caves, Page 100, 66, 71:  Go to CHOICE #5 (CLEAR)
-Nylon tent, Page 95:  DEATH (CLEAR, blown into gully by thunderstorm)
 
CHOICE #5, Page 71
-Land on Alcor water planet, Page 2, 90, 78, 54, 80:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, close call with landing on sea monster, but get deuterium and return to Earth)
-Continue to Earth, Page 106, 117:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, crash onto Earth, but awakened by friendly humans)
 
CHOICE #6, Page 99
-Become hysko, Page 93, 85, 112:  Go to CHOICE #7 (CLEAR)
-Return to the surface, Page 108:  DEATH (CLEAR, thrown to the ground from sky village)
 
CHOICE #7, Page 112
-Attack dragon’s air intake, Page 86:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, teach hyskos how to kill dragons)
-Attack dragon’s sensors, Page 57:  DEATH (CLEAR, fire breath)
 
CHOICE #8, Page 5
-Go with Keesa to Shanar ruins, Page 24, 10:  Go to CHOICE #11 (CLEAR)
-Go underground to Dern tribe, Page 70:  Go to CHOICE #9 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #9, Page 70
-Hole on left, Page 110:  DEATH (CLEAR, lost in cave maze)
-Hole on right, Page 67:  Go to CHOICE #10 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #10, Page 67
-Walk along lake shore, Page 64:  DEATH (CLEAR, eaten by lake snake)
-Take rowboat across lake, Page 114:  BAD ENDING (CLEAR, Derns welcome you to their village, but Keesa is dead, and you never know if the dragons ever leave)
 
CHOICE #11, Page 10
-Countryside, Page 84, 72:  DEATH (CLEAR, fire breath too fast for tympor "horse")
-Hide in Shanar underground, Page 20, 14, 44, 3, 12, 16:  Go to CHOICE #12 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #12, Page 16
-Darblon Mountains, Page 9, 45:  Go to CHOICE #16 (CLEAR)
-Life pod, Page 79, 113, 97, 104:  Go to CHOICE #13 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #13, Page 104
-Ask hyskos to send you to life pod, Page 91, 103:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, hyskos become vegetarian, teach archery to Derns, become Grand Emperor of Derns)
-Ask hyskos to send you to Shanar, Page 102:  Go to CHOICE #14 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #14, Page 102
-Look for Dr. Nekai, Page 109:  Go to CHOICE #15 (CLEAR)
-Face the hyskos, Page 87-89:  DEATH (CLEAR, fire breath kills both you and hysko pursuer)
 
CHOICE #15, Page 109
-Left, Page 116, 111, 75, 61:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, dragons fall out of sky, total victory)
-Right, Page 82:  GOOD ENDING? (CLEAR, meet friendly dragon who licks your hand, somehow “know” that space dragons will be destroyed)
 
CHOICE #16, Page 45
-Down cliff face, Page 21, 8, 26-27, 34:  Go to CHOICE #17 (CLEAR)
-South to natural bridge, Page 63, 50, 81:  DEATH (CLEAR, fire breath, but dragon accidentally destroys itself too)
 
CHOICE #17, Page 34
-Straight up mountain, Page 28, 69, 53, 35:  Go to CHOICE #18 (CLEAR)
-Look around base, Page 30:  DEATH (CLEAR, fire breath in tunnel near maintenance center)
 
CHOICE #18, Page 35
-Control room, Page 55, 42, 25:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, smash “xylophone”, all metal dragons shut down)
-Dragon floor, Page 49:  Go to CHOICE #19 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #19, Page 49
-Get off space dragon, Page 52:  DEATH (CLEAR, strangled by robot)
-Stay inside space dragon, Page 38, 48, 73:  Go to CHOICE #20 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #20, Page 73
-Go higher, Page 58, 94, 41:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, fly to Earth-owned space station)
-Dive, Page 39:  DEATH (CLEAR, space dragons all crash into each other, space dragons in cave are buried under rock)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I just learned that Planet Of The Dragons is really a sequel to another Richard Brightfield installment called Invaders Of The Planet Earth, where the Tauron vs. Vork conflict is prominent.  In that book, the conquerors disable Earth's electricity since it's their species's weakness.  It's one of the more popular CYOAs, and I may review it later.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Part 1


The Horror Of High Ridge is an unusual gamebook because it's a sequel to an installment written by another author.  Much earlier in the thread, I played through House Of Danger, an R.A. Montgomery book with many strange occurrences like chimp counterfeiters.  The Horror Of High Ridge, however, was written by Julius Goodman, and seems to follow up on the "19th century ghosts" plot.


I've been spending the summer with my House Of Danger companions Ricardo and Lisa in the mountain town of High Ridge.  This time, we're looking for "great-uncle Rush's buried fortune".  The Paul Granger drawing shows a boy with thick brown (?) hair and a long chin reading a book in a chair.  My character is looking for clues in an "obscure volume of High Ridge history" until he falls asleep.  I'm awakened by a "moaning scarier than any sound you have ever heard".


That moaning is a recurring incident in High Ridge.  When it was heard 50 and 100 years ago, something "so horrible that most people won't talk about it" occurred, and the townsfolk suffered "disappearances or ghastly deaths".  My character's so scared that he pulls the blanket over his head.  Lisa mistakes me for a ghost and screams.  Ricardo dashes in and wants to go on a spooky adventure.  Lisa says "I don't want to go tramping around in the dark looking for whatever is making that horrible sound."


I try to tell them about my research, and Ricardo doesn't want to listen:  "Yeah, what is this, a book report?"  Why, yes this thread is!  The book our hero was reading before he started to snooze was a ghost story collection called High Ridge:  An Oral History.  "Some of the ghosts are Indians; some are prospectors-they founded this town, remember."  Ricardo says "So what?" in spite of his desire to check out the current haunting!  Lisa tells Ricardo to be quiet so she can listen.


The reports contradict each other.  Sometimes the Native American ghosts kill the prospectors, and in other versions it's vice versa.  The worst possibility of all is that both groups attack the living High Ridge residents.  Why don't they move out?


"But that's all hooey.  Even if you believe in ghosts, what does it have to do with us?"  Wow, Ricardo is dense.  If there's any "sacrifice a companion" CHOICE, he's the candidate.  I have to explain that the moans in the book are the moans that we're hearing now.


CHOICE #1 happens on Page 4 after flipping through the previous pages in order.  You'll never see that happen in a Richard Brightfield book!  I can either stay in the cabin with Lisa on Page 6, or check out the moaning with an now unnerved Ricardo on Page 5.


Well, I can't go on much of an adventure if I hide indoors with the sensible companion.  Besides, we can look for ways to kill off Ricardo if we follow him.  "C'mon, Lisa, you don't believe in ghosts and spooks and stuff like that, do you?  It's probably just some kid practicing for Halloween, or a rusty gate swinging in the wind."


Lisa says she doesn't disbelieve in ghosts, and is offended by my lousy suggestion of a "rusty gate".  I ask Ricardo to "talk some sense into Lisa", as if she weren't the smart one.  Ricardo instead says that there's no wind, and therefore the sound can't come from a rusty gate.  This time he has to be the one who explains the concept.  Perhaps our minds are shared in common, and Ricardo and I have to alternate between being the smart one and the stupid one?


We wait for minutes "in consternation" until we smell kerosene and the room becomes dark.  I tell them that my lamp ran out of kerosene.  Lisa is furious:  "Why don't you get electricity like everyone else?"  "Ricardo is chuckling to himself."  The reason isn't concern about the electric bill so much as preserving the condition of Rush's house as it was in his time.


Lisa takes the initiative when we hear the moans again.  We get dressed and go outside without a CHOICE #2 plan.  Lisa wants to help whoever is moaning on Page 21.  Ricardo thinks we should climb the church tower and look around as if we were Link in Breath Of The Wild on Page 16.  My character wants to visit our neighbor Mr. Phillip, the "unofficial town historian" of High Ridge on Page 27.


Let's visit Mr. Phillip and find out some more of the lore.  When Lisa starts to object, I tell her that the moans are coming from his direction anyway, and he might be asking for help.  "It is as if the whole town is holding its breath and watching you walk down the street."


Ricardo spots someone and starts to crawl on the ground.  "An Indian moves silently around the house, peeking in the windows.  As you are wondering how to get warning to Mr. Phillip without giving yourself away, the Indian steps back suddenly and shoots an arrow through the side window."  Lisa rushes in and screams.  "Mr. Phillip is sprawled on the floor, an arrow in his chest.  His terror-stricken eyes are wide open.  He is dead."


The arrow disappears, followed by the corpse.  CHOICE #3 is what to do next:  Hide in my cabin on Page 71, wait in Mr. Phillip's house on Page 83, or "decide that you must have information on what is happening" on Page 101.


Ricardo's scared now', and "gulps" as he says his next lines.  "Who, me?  I'll go anywhere or do anything."  The vague Page 101 option leads to going for the church tower.  The moans are quieter at the church and "hollow sounding".  Lisa's annoyed when we reach the top:  "There's nothing to see!"  We look at a red glow around a park on the north side of High Ridge which isn't fire, until we hear footsteps at the tower.


"You realize with a start that the stairs are the only way out of the tower-except jumping."  Be glad there isn't an elevator, or it would be much scarier for you.  Our pursuer is "neither a prospector nor an Indian", to our party's relief.  Guess there are no current indigenous residents of High Ridge who aren't ghosts.  However, he "flickers" and wears "old-fashioned clothes".


The flickering man tells us the true history of the town.  Drunken prospectors killed the native people who were performing a "burial ritual" and desecrated their holy site.  The survivors retaliated against the prospectors, and both sides became ghosts who attacked each other in the incidents 100 and 50 years ago.  The "red glow" we saw indicates where the ghosts are, and it's uncertain as to whether the glow causes them to act violently.


Flickering Man tells us "The Indian chief appeared and asked me to help end the horror.  I tried unsuccessfully."  We'll have to meet this chief eventually to find out more.  Flickering Man is drawn on Page 39.  His legs are transparent, but the upper half of his body is not.  He wears a bow tie, a black jacket, and some kind of white shirt with dark patterns on it.  A black wide brimmed hat is flying just above him as he flies away from the church tower toward the red glow.


Ricardo asks what will happen if we fail, but Lisa says "We're special.  And there are three of us."  She has a point, and may realize she's living in a CYOA like Dr. Vivaldi in Hyperspace.  CHOICE #4 is whether to go on this quest on Page 61, or take the coward's way out and say it's "too dangerous" on Page 53.  CHOICE #5 is whether to look for the chief directly on Page 86, or try to figure out a poem in the museum with a statue of the chief.  (Does my character know any of North America's indigenous languages?  It seems likely the poem would be written in one!)


I realize I left the library key Mrs. Grundy gave me at my cabin.  (The museum is on the library's 2nd floor.)  Lisa is more daring than the rest of the party here and suggests breaking in through the fire escape instead.  "I'm sure no one would mind under these circumstances."  The name Mrs. Grundy sounds familiar.  Was she in another CYOA?  Most of the results I get from a search seem to be related to the Riverdale TV show.


(Google is abysmal these days.  A search for "dark age" had "middle-aged" as one of the results, and searches for "mediocre" end up with "worst" instead.)


"You have never liked open grating under your feet, and now it feels awful."  How often does this situation come up in my character's life?  Does he often climb fire escapes?  Ricardo breaks the window, but is probably shot for his trouble!  "Ricardo groans.  You hear a thud as he hits the floor."


Mrs. Grundy is the culprit, and Ricardo is only "nicked in the shoulder."  She mistook him for a "hooligan".


"You leave Lisa to console Mrs. Grundy and comfort Ricardo.  You find the statue in a glass case.  The tomahawk in the chief's hand almost glows with an inner light.  The plaque on the case reads:  The following poem was found along with this statue when it mysteriously appeared May, 9, 1889 in front of this building.  To date no one has determined the meaning of the poem or the origin of the statue.


Swing me twice when the glow arrives,
You'll save yourself and other lives.
Swing me thrice as the horror goes,
You'll bring peace between the foes.


With a whoop, you break the glass, grab the tomahawk from the statue's hands, and leap down the fire escape before a startled Mrs. Grundy or Lisa can stop you.  THE END".


What?  Is this a Good Ending where I end the ghost war with my magic tomahawk?  Is it a Bad Non-Death Ending where I become an axe murderer for eternity?  Or does my character simply throw himself to his Death from the top of the fire escape?  I'll have to rule this as an Inconclusive Ending because I'm so confused. . .


(Then again, this is the author of Survival At Sea who made a "Good Ending" out of "you find an expensive seashell after killing most of the crew with your bad tsunami sailing advice".)


The illustration shows my character walking down the fire escape with tomahawk in hand.  The library/museum building looks a bit like a log cabin.  So much for trying to find clues before meeting the chief.


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Now I have proof that no one "reads" the dreck I write other than bots.  If any Realms Beyonders had looked at the previous post, they would have noticed that I said Julius Goodman wrote Survival At Sea with the "consolation seashell" instead of the true author Edward Packard.  I had confused Survival At Sea with Treasure Diver.


Couldn't edit this into the previous post due to an "internal server error" or something, so I'll try it as a separate post and see if it works.  Some more endings should be coming tomorrow.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Alternate Endings Part 1


When we decide to look for the chief in CHOICE #5, Ricardo says that both groups of ghosts are hostile, and that we don't know where to look for him.  He then states "Well, the best way to find the chief is to split up, which is a dumb idea.  As for the ghosts, I think we should disguise ourselves as Indians or prospectors.  If we run into them, maybe they won't notice us.'  Lisa replies "Ricardo, that's a stupid idea."


The line just before CHOICE #6 is "You're not so sure."  Well, where are we going to get the costumes in the first place?  Is there a Costume Drama Surplus Store in High Ridge for authentic outfits?  Will we wear cheap Halloween costumes and assume the ghosts can't tell the difference?  Maybe the museum has some uniforms left over from the 19th century, but they're probably not in child size.  But the most damning evidence of all against us would be that we'd still have corporeal form.  The options are to side with Ricardo on Page 100, or Lisa on Page 108.


My character has an answer to all my questions:  he has a convenient "trunk filled with all kind of old clothes" in his cabin.  "You find only three costumes that fit, but luckily, they're Indian costumes."  Are they even from the right tribe?  Paul Granger spares us an illustration of the tacky costumes.


"I hope this works,' murmurs Lisa.  You are put to the test sooner than you hoped.  As you turn down the next street, you spy a group of prospector ghosts surrounding the Howard place.  'They've seen us!' Ricardo says.  'C'mon, we can't run away now.  Try to look as if we're going somewhere.'  You and Lisa follow him rapidly down the street.


As you get closer to the ghosts, you realize you're shivering.  You don't know if it's from cold or fear.  Then you're past them!  They glanced at you, but didn't seem to pay much attention.  Or so you thought.  You see the ghosts grab both Ricardo and Lisa and feel a knife entering your back.  As you fall to the ground, you wonder if it was the shivering that gave you away.  Ghosts don't shiver, do they?  THE END"


I was right!  Having a material body convicted our hero, and no disguise would have changed that.  The party's hopes of reenacting the Boston Tea Party were doomed from the start.  The illustration is of a simple knife.


Forgot to mention this in the first post, but the museum statue date of 1889 implies that The Horror Of High Ridge takes place in 1989, which would actually place it 6 years in the future relative to the publication date.  The fact that there are prospectors in the mountains suggests the setting is California or Colorado.


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Alternate Endings Part 2


"Ricardo, I agree with Lisa.  Your idea's brilliant, but stupid.  C'mon, let's just sneak over to the red glow, the way we sneaked over here.'  'Well, I like the idea,' Ricardo says.  He looks annoyed as he turns to descend the stairs.'


Ricardo and Lisa are arguing again after we climb down the stairs.  Lisa thinks we should check the opposite end of the town from the glow since we're already at that point, but Ricardo thinks we should press on to the glow.  My character flips a coin and it's heads.


We turn from Cross Street to Fifth Street and find a hill.  There are "tailings" from a mine there, and we see "the figure of a sitting Indian, a blanket wrapped loosely around his shoulders.'  He says "Ah, you are all here now.  I was wondering where you were.  You are late.'


He gives a long exposition of the backstory.  The prospectors originally allowed his tribe to keep their sacred site when they founded High Ridge, but then they got drunk and killed the tribe as they performed the burial ritual that involved "ceremonial weapons".  The survivors attacked the prospectors until the tribe was destroyed entirely in the fighting.  The prospectors mined for gold and threw the tribe's bones along with their "sacred objects" on the tailing pile.


"The Spirits in the heavens" ordered that the ghosts of both sides fight each other repeatedly, "and anyone else unfortunate enough to be caught in the middle."


"How will it end?' Lisa interrupts.  'You will end it.  You must dig until you find one of the ceremonial objects the prospectors threw here.  Then you must carry it through town.  It will protect you.  You will use it  to gather all the spirits, then return to me.  When you have followed these directions the spirits will disappear.  They and the town will be at rest.


'Hurry now.  All this must be done before dawn or it will be of no use.'  You are about to ask questions of the old Indian, but he vanishes before your eyes.  'We'd better hurry,' you tell the others.  'We don't have much time.'  THE END"


Another potential Good Ending that becomes an Inconclusive Ending because the story cuts off too soon.  Do our heroes succeed?  Will dawn come before they can reunite the ghosts with the chief?  Or will they get killed before they can retrieve the artifact of protection?



Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

2 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Alternate Endings Part 3


None of the endings following CHOICE #4 are a definite victory, so let's say it's "too dangerous" to go on the quest to exorcise High Ridge.


"It sounds too dangerous to me,' you announce.  'I don't know about you two, but I'm sure there must be a way to stop this horror without getting involved.'  'I'm not so sure,' Ricardo answers.  'Sometimes the only way to end something is to get right in the middle of it.'  'But what if the middle of it is deadly?'


'Lisa's right, Ricardo.  'He who leaves, lives to fight again,' or something like that.'  'Maybe, but I'm not positive.  I think that. . .wait!  What's that?'  You heard it too.  The wind has picked up.  It too seems to be moaning.  You have been huddling together on the floor of the tower since your visitor left.  Now you stand up.  The red glow has spread; it's covering the whole sky now.  You sink back to the floor.  Ricardo and Lisa join you.


Again the moaning starts and grows louder and louder.  The red glow seems to hang over the tower, but you're afraid to look.  The three of you spend the night on the tower floor, arms around one another.  You can't decide which is worse:  not knowing what is going on down there, or thinking about finding out.  THE END"


Yet another Inconclusive Ending.  It would have been a Neutral Ending if the heroes survived the night for sure, allowing for the next ghostly visit to occur in 2039.  Still, the red glow covering the whole town implies that the House Of Danger party could be killed that night by the ghosts.


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Alternate Endings Part 4


Hiding at Mr. Phillip's house after the town historian's demise in CHOICE #3 has mostly the same result as hiding in the church tower in CHOICE #4.  The only real difference is that there's a tomahawk drawing at the bottom of the page.


"Let's stay here.  I know it's spooky, but it's scarier outside.'  'I don't think I can go outside,' says Lisa.  'It's settled, then,' Ricardo says, as he bolts the door.  You'd like to check through Mr. Phillip's library for more information, but you're afraid of ending up dead and gone, too.  The three of you huddle in a corner of the cabin, as far as possible from the spot where Mr. Phillip died.  According to the book you read earlier, whatever is happening in High Ridge tonight will end at dawn, but dawn seems a long, long time from now.  THE END"


Were conclusions like this added just to increase the ending count on the cover?


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Alternate Endings Part 5


Finally, we get a grisly Death featured in an illustration!  It happens when the party decides to stay in the hero's cabin in CHOICE #3.


'Let's go back to my house.'  'Why?' asks Ricardo.  'I think it will be safer.  It's too spooky to stay here.'  Ricardo and Lisa nod in agreement.  You lead the way out the door.  You don't feel much like talking, either.  Once on the street, however, you feel even more uneasy than you do in Mr. Phillip's cabin.  You feel expose and vulnerable.  Then the silence is broken by your screams as knives appear out of nowhere and bury themselves in your backs.  THE END"


My character is lying face down on the ground.  Lisa's about to fall down onto my corpse, while Ricardo is leaning backward in an improbable position.  All have knives sticking out of their backs.  Lisa has long blonde hair, while Ricardo has glasses with circular lenses and has what looks like a small afro hairdo.  (The cover shows all three characters in color, while the pictures inside are in black-and-white.)



Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Horror Of High Ridge Alternate Endings Part 6


Going to the church tower earlier in CHOICE #2 has the same effect as in CHOICE #3, even though you'd think it would make a difference since the entire story occurs in one night.  So let's respond to the cries for help in CHOICE #2 instead.


The chief meets us before we set out, and this time he has a name:  Walking Eagle.  Ricardo repeats "Dead for a hundred years?" after the chief mentions it, as if he were a Japanese RPG character.  Walking Eagle's expository speech is mostly the same as if we had met him after CHOICE #6, although it should go better now since we have more time before dawn.


Walking Eagle disappears and leaves us with CHOICE #7:  help him reunite the ghosts on Page 40, or think the mission is "too scary" on Page 52.  Who buys a book called The Horror Of High Ridge and cowers when confronted by any frightening decision?  It reminds me of Creepy House, a You Say Which Way book where there were several "are you REALLY sure you want to go in the house?" CHOICEs.


Our hero has visited the sacred site in the backstory.  He says "I've been there several times, just walking around, and I always felt uncomfortable.  It's as though there's something evil there.  I guess I know why now."  Lisa and I carry shovels, and Ricardo brings the flashlights.  (Wasn't there a gamebook where I wondered why the hero didn't bring a flashlight?  At least in The Horror Of High Ridge, the protagonists do research and bring equipment.)


We spend hours digging, and no ghost shows up to torment us.  We don't have the artifact either.  It's almost dawn now, and Lisa orders us to take a break.  She wonders if there's another way to solve the problem, and Ricardo says "You heard the chief."  My character wonders if we should go to the library because Mrs. Grundy provided the key in the morning.  CHOICE #8 is to go to the library-museum on Page 55, or continue digging on Page 63.  Note that the library option is not a page number that's been used, although we've been there in CHOICE #5.


Our trip to the library is ghost-free.  Mrs. Grundy must have seen The Horror Of High Ridge too, since she starts to talk about her "terrifying night".  Under normal circumstances, Mrs. Grundy is "a forceful woman used to dominating the conversation", but now she lets me speak.  When I finish, she suggests "What about the mysterious statue of the Indian chief upstairs in the museum?"


In my CANONICAL ENDING, I grabbed the tomahawk from that same statue and leapt down the fire escape to an unknown fate.  Will doing so on Page 56 be a real Good Ending?


The illustration shows my long chin character smashing the glass surrounding the statue with a hammer.  The statue itself is taller than a human and has a big feather headdress.  The same poem from the first ending appears again, and this time our hero says "I've got it!  I've got it!"


"With the tomahawk in your hand, you feel invulnerable.  You race fearlessly through the streets."  At the mine tailings, Ricardo is absent.  Lisa says she found an "old pipe" (a peace pipe?) and Ricardo was going to use it to herd the ghosts. "You point to the east, where the sky is beginning to lighten.  Time is running out."  If he were Millie from Planet Of The Dragons, I'd be sure he could pull off a solo victory.  CHOICE #9 is to wait for Shadow Ricardo on Page 110, or use the magic tomahawk on Page 97.


I was right to take the initiative.  We meet a "panting Ricardo" three blocks into our run, with hundreds of ghosts in pursuit.  The ghosts shut up once I lift the tomahawk, and start to disappear when I swing it twice in "clockwise  circles above your head."


"She's right.  They are gradually fading away.  Remembering the next instruction, 'as the horror goes,' you swing the tomahawk three more times.  The ghosts disappear completely.  'Back to the sacred site, quick!' you say, and start running.  When you get there, you find the chief, arms raised to the sky, chanting.


As you approach, he commands, 'Give me the tomahawk and the pipe.'  You and Ricardo obey.  The chief smiles.  'You have done well,' he tells you.  Walk in peace forever and continue to be brave of heart.'  Then he's gone.  THE END"


Is this the only Good Ending in The Horror Of High Ridge?  It feels like it's meant to be an Ultimate Ending book before that series existed, with the looser structure of Choose Your Own Adventure.  This ending gives some clues to the CANONICAL ENDING.  Since our hero never met Walking Eagle or dug up the pipe in that route, maybe he couldn't round up the ghosts in time.  The illustration is on Page 97 before the ending itself, showing the hero facing away from the reader and holding up the tomahawk against a white background.


Endings So Far


1 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings