Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Part 1


I wanted to take a break from RA Montgomery's nonsensical CYOAs.  It's time for another New Zealand gamebook courtesy of Blair Polly and DM Potter.  Volcano of Fire is the direct sequel to Secrets of Glass Mountain, specifically the ending where the player becomes a member of the Highland Council.  This also places it in the same continuity as Between the Stars, and possibly Secrets of the Singing Cave.


"You sit at a long table in the command pod atop one of the twin Pillars of Haramon.  The room is filled with the hum of voices.  A small robotic bird, unseen by those in the room, hovers in one corner.  The man at the head of the table has three blue-diamond stars pinned to his chest, indicating his rank as chief of the council.  Next to him sits a visiting Lowland general, his face as hard as the rock walls of the command pod.  Around the table, other important figures from both the Highlands and the Lowlands sit nervously".


The chief tells me the Highlanders are running out of tyranium crystals.  This is bad for everyone because tyranium crystals are needed to give the guide sticks friction so Sliders can navigate the glass mountains safely.  If the Highlands don't provide enough mineral resources, the truce with the Lowlanders may collapse.


Some of the narration hints that the circumstances in which I became a council member were a little different from the Secrets of Glass Mountain ending.  "Sure you've been a troop leader in the Slider Corps and spent a little time in mining school, but leading an expedition into new territory?  That's quite a responsibility".  Those who remember the Secrets of Glass Mountain playthrough will notice the discrepancy, but I'll point it out for those who don't.  You only become a council member if you become a miner at the beginning of the previous book.


Minor continuity issues aside, the narration describes the environment of planet Petron well for newcomers, although it's nothing Secrets of Glass Mountain readers haven't seen.  The pink moon, pango birds, and black mountains are all here.


The Lowlander general recommends that I lead the mission, because I'm respected by both nations.  CHOICE #1 is to accept the mission, or be a coward and suggest that someone else lead the expedition.


The Highlander chief orders me to go to Mount Kakona.  Unfortunately, tyranium crystals tend to be located in volcanoes, and Mount Kakona is active.  My crew will be Gagnon, Dagma, Piver, Shoola, and Drexel.  Drexel was never mentioned in Secrets of Glass Mountain, but the other 4 characters return.  Gagnon the navigator and Dagma the rival were companions in the Slider route, Shoola was a Slider who escorted the player in the miner route, and Piver was a miner who liked to tell bad jokes.


Piver has invented a new cable device called the "pocket launcher".  It's only 20 feet long, so it's not good for climbing up mountains.  It's intended for exploring caves and anchoring yourself to the Black Slopes if caught in the rain.


"How many lifts before you need to recharge?"  "Twenty or so.  Unless you're a heavyweight hydro-gobbler like Dagma".  Piver thinks I'm joking when I say we're going to Mt. Kakona, until he notices my facial expression and says "Geebus!  You're serious!"  It wouldn't be in this continuity without characters shouting "Geebus!" all the time.  I still like to think Homer Simpson was a missionary to Petron.


Piver has one terrible joke left before I leave:  "Why does a red-beaked pango lift up one leg while it's sleeping?  Because if it lifts up both legs, it falls over!"  Even the narration makes fun of Piver's sense of humor.  It's implied that Gagnon and Dagma were with me in the previous book, which doesn't happen in the miner route.


Gagnon already knows our destination because one of the Highlander chiefs asked about Kakona's southern vents.  He's figured out they want tyranium crystals too.  He's the one who presents us with CHOICE #2, which is explained in significant detail.  Far more than you'd ever get in an RA Montgomery book. 


Gagnon recommends taking a driller along because we can cut the travel time by 5 days and dig through the Tyron Cliffs.  The Tyron Cliffs "are one of Petron's natural wonders.  But they are also a big headache for anyone wanting to travel west and are the main reason the Kakona volcanic field hasn't been explored".  The alternative is to bring more food along, but we'd have to take sledges through "incredibly dangerous country".  This route may be better for the Lowlanders, as it's suggested the tunnel route may involve more climbing.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Part 2


Piver complains about carrying the drilling machine along.  "Geebus this thing is heavy.  I hope this works.  Otherwise, we'll be humping this along for nothing".  Gagnon had better find the right place to dig, or else it'll take 2 days instead of 10 hours.  There's no infrastructure on the other side of the Tyron Cliffs, so we'll have to use portable tow launchers and zip lines.  Once their batteries are depleted, "you'll have to climb like Highlanders did in the old days, with leg power, skill and determination".  The Lowlanders are more accustomed to climbing than you think, because Trodie and the others have " cross country experience".


Gagnon says we'll "just have to eat wild pangos" if we run out of food.  Trodie is impressed by the scenery.  "I'm just trying to convince myself I'm not dreaming.  I've looked up at these mountains all my life and now that I'm here amongst them, I feel so small".  The player character has similar opinions.


Piver starts teasing Trodie.  " I hear that hot rock is hard on the boots.  Melts through the soles in minutes.'  Trodie's mouth drops again.  Then Piver starts laughing again.  'Geebus, you Lowlanders are gullible.  If the rock's hot, you go around it".  Trodie seems to like him.  Piver's right about Dagma's hydro bar consumption according to the narration.


Black Gully is a natural half-pipe, though it's hard to slide through because "deep shadows hide the gully's many irregularities".  Another possible danger is the Wandering Adamus Vine, or WAV.  Think of a thorny 100 pound tumbleweed that injures Highlanders and Lowlanders alike.  I mention that an old man from my hometown claimed a WAV shape-shifted into a 4-legged animal.  But my character dismisses that as a "moth mist dream".


In case any of my readers have forgotten, or hadn't read the Between the Stars playthrough, I'll explain.  In Between the Stars, there was an intelligent shape-shifting plant on the sleeper spaceship Victoria named Eva that was responsible for colonizing Petron.  Chances are WAVs are Eva's descendants.


Although the Lowlanders may have some climbing experience, they still suffer from motion stomach.  Piver taunts them by saying raw pango eggs should help.  Like in every other Blair Polly book, someone says "Holy moly", this time as a response to seeing the Tyron Cliffs.


CHOICE #3 is whether to set up the drilling machine for tomorrow, or camp in case the weather gets worse.  It's likely the former will be the first Death in the book, and I don't want that for the CANONICAL ENDING.  The reason for this is some text a couple of pages before the CHOICE:  "Rain is the one danger all Highlanders fear.  It can turn an easily traversable slope into an ultra-slick nightmare in seconds.  Even eighty percent tyranium crystals won't hold on a slope of more than ten degrees on wet rock".

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Part 3


To avoid slipping to my Death, I set up camp in CHOICE #3.  "There are smiles amongst the Highlanders and Lowlanders alike.  Everyone's had a long slide and they're hungry.  Even those who've ridden on the sledges need to stretch their tired backs and legs".


Trodie gives me a Lowlander energy bar made of crackleberries, the most delicious fruit in You Say Which Way.    Lowlanders react to roast pango in a similar way.  My character's teachers said the Tyron Cliffs were created long before humans landed on Petron.  In Secrets of Glass Mountain, one of the endings involved finding a spaceship, though the characters seemed to dismiss the stories of coming from another planet as myths before that.


A WAV bounces downhill, and Trodie barely avoids it as he and I move behind a sledge.  The tip of one of the thorns is still alive, and starts growing more thorns.  The protagonist suspects that their uncle might be able to breed it with hydro to create fast-growing food.  But the plant stabs my finger and I quickly give up the idea of farming it.  "I don't care how fast it grows, I don't want my food crossed with that!"


True to my prediction, rain comes, but it doesn't kill any of us.  We lose some Lowlander supplies because they don't know how to secure them as well as Highlanders.  Drexel the Slider is overconfident and says "I bet I could climb this wall in less time than it takes you to drill a hole through thirty yards of black glass".


CHOICE #4 is to let Drexel do that and risk having him fall, or hope Piver can drill through the Tyron Cliffs without his machines breaking down.


The CANONICAL ENDING follows once Piver starts digging through the cliff.  Like in other You Say Which Way stories, the conclusion is too long to type in full.  I'll summarize the first part and quote the end.


Drexel volunteers to climb the cliff anyway if the drill fails.  Dagma and Shoola are competing for the glory of pushing the drill by pedaling.  Both Highlanders and Lowlanders take turns with the drill, but Dagma is holding out longer than anyone else.  We stop when Piver notices we hit a pocket.  He tells me to send a search party if he's not back in a week.  I say "We'll just plug the hole and move on".  Piver disappears into a tunnel so dark, even my headlamp doesn't illuminate it well.  We brake with Piver's pocket launchers when we start falling, and Piver's voice can be heard saying "I meant to warn you about that".


Piver's in a lava tube, the best place to find a vein of tyranium crystals.  Dagma gives me a chemical light, telling me "it's a million moth power".  Piver sees gold or copper, suggesting tyranium is close.  He's right.  Tyranium crystals are needles that hang from the ceiling.  There are so many we have to make up numbers like "grazillions" and "squillions" to count them.


"The expedition members are buzzing with excitement after hearing what you've discovered.  Only once or twice in a generation is such a rich deposit found.  This one will break records, of that you have no doubt.  Although the majority of the minerals will go to the council, there is always a small proportion that goes to the expedition members that make the discovery.  A small piece of a very, very large pie, is still a lot of pie.


The next few days are spent rigging pulleys and bringing the mined crystals to the surface.  Once the sledges are loaded to capacity, your group starts back.  Trekking back with heavy sledges takes time and effort, but slow and safe is better than losing a sledge so close to success.  Three days later, from near the top of Long Gully, you see a familiar sight.  'Look, the Pillars of Haramon!'


The glimmering pinnacles shimmer in early afternoon sun, reflecting beams of light around the valley.  In the distance the Lowlands, with their patchwork fields of crops stretches off to the turquoise sea on the horizon.  A line of towering black peaks runs off to the east like the spine of some ancient monster.  Trodie comes to a screeching halt beside you and looks down at his homeland beyond the pillars.  'Hard to believe anything could be so beautiful, isn't it?'


'Does it make you feel small?'  you ask.  'Smaller than small', he says with a smile.  'And luckier than you'll ever know".


This CANONICAL ENDING completes the Highland Council's mission, no more, no less.  But are there other Good Endings where you find something unexpected?


Results So Far


1 Good Ending

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 1


Our first alternate universe will involve allowing Drexel to climb the Tryon Cliffs in CHOICE #4.  He plans on placing anchors every 20 feet, and requests for someone to stay at the bottom to give him lines and bolts.  Once he's finished, he'll hoist the rest of us up if the drilling takes too long.  Dagma chomps hydro bars as she tries to outlast the rest on the pedals.  Piver says it'll only take 3 more hours to get to the other side with the drill.


Drexel climbs by pushing his body up after kicking toe studs into the rock.  Trodie wants us to take a tour of the floating gardens and fisheries of the Lowlands, but I say "Water and the Highlands are usually a bad mix".  The risk of slipping down mountains makes Highlanders a bit hydrophobic.


Dagma, Gagnon, and I compete on the pedals, and whoever gives up first has to clean the latrine.  However, Highlanders respect leaders who are willing to handle dirty jobs.  The competition is canceled because we reach the other side more quickly than we anticipated.  Faster than Drexel could climb the cliff, in fact.


"Off in the distance, rising in a perfect cone, is Mount Kakona.  Around the volcano's peak hovers a ring of cloud.  A red river of lava runs down its left flank".  The only clouds around are near Mt. Kakona because the water evaporates so quickly due to the heat.  Gagnon will try to find a way past the north-south crevasses.


As for Drexel, "He swoops down the rock in a series of tight S-turns, shifting his weight from one side to the other, his knees bent and guide stick tucked tight under his arm, applying drag as required.  The screech of his diamond hook echoes across the landscape and the distinctive swish of his boots cutting turns in the black glass is music to your Highland ears".  He may have been slower than the drillers, but he has the honor of being the first to climb the Tyron Cliffs.


CHOICE #5 is which side of the crevasse to cross.  Left is on the lava side, but it's also quicker.  Right is longer but safer.  My audience demands blood, so I'll look for a Death.


Gagnon says "Get too hot and Dagma might think you're a roasted pango and take a bite out of your leg".  Dagma replies with "Watch it or you'll be the one I roast over the lava flow".  Gagnon claims she gets lost in her sleeping hammock.  Those two love to argue, but they're friendly to each other.  A ladder-bridge is built, but the rock is too narrow for some stretches.  More lava is flowing from Mt. Kakona, and earthquakes slow us down.


CHOICE #6 is to camp on a plateau because we're too tired, or look in the caves because they "look interesting".  The latter sounds more likely to result in casualties, but that's not the case.  Piver and Trodie joke with each other for a while, and they call each other HiLa and LoLa respectively.  My character wonders if Piver "made up HiLa on the spot, or if it's a term in common usage down in the Lowlands.  Language, and slang in particular, is an interesting topic, but a sharp twinge in your stomach reminds you how hungry you are".


The characters should be more surprised that Highlanders and Lowlanders understand each other when they talk, considering they're separated by geographical obstacles and were hostile to each other until recently.


Once again the ending is too long to quote in full.  "But as you stand in the caves entrance, a massive boom blasts the top fifty feet of Kakona into a million pieces, sending a great plume of steam and rock into the air".  Piver's response is "Holy moly!" like every right-minded Blair Polly character.


We hide in a lava tube to prevent rocks from giving us a bonkus of the conkus.  It's not only rocks that were blasted into the air, but "more tyranium lying on the ground than your troop could carry back with a dozen sledges".  Some will be left behind for future trips.


"After slinging your hammock, you're pleased to take the weight off your sore feet.  The slide back to the Pillars of Haramon should be routine, assuming the weather holds.  As you lie back, you wonder if you'll get a star for your efforts.  You have no doubt your expedition has exceeded the council's wildest dreams.  You also feel you've forged a strong bond with Trodie and the other Lowlanders.  This is a real bonus, especially with the Lowlanders and Highlanders struggling to maintain a truce.


The next morning, as you move out, all you can think about is getting everyone home safe.  But it isn't until your group reaches the top of Long Gully, for the long slide down to the Pillars of Haramon, that you finally start to relax.  'The Pillars!'  Gagnon yells out.  'I can see them!'


And then, you can see them too.  Never before have the two shimmering black monoliths looked so beautiful.  As you sweep down the gully in a series of S-turns the whole of Petron opens out before you.  Past the Pillars, off in the distance, the Lowlands stretch out towards the sea.  Petron's smallest moon has risen and sits just above the horizon.  The sun is low.  Dewfall will be soon.  If you hurry, you'll have just enough time to get home. 


But despite your rush, for a moment, the expedition slows down and comes to a stop.  For almost a minute, the only sound is the faint screeching of a distant pango colony.  Then you hear movement beside you.  It's Piver.  'Geebus', the engineer says.  'Isn't that just the most beautiful site [sic] you've ever seen?"


This conclusion is mostly the same as the CANONICAL ENDING, but more riches as a reward for going as far as the volcano.  Will Mt. Petron's eruption kill our heroes in the plateau camp path?


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 2


Camping on a plateau right before an eruption is due is a terrible idea. 


"Okay, let's fire up the burners and get some broth heating', you say.  'Piver, would you please get the hammocks and tarps up?'  Everyone works together and before long you're sitting around a warm burner with a hot cup of broth in your hands.  After getting some food in their bellies your troop is starting to tell stories and joke with each other.  Some even sing songs.  As the sun goes down, a light dew falls across the slopes, making it dangerous to move out of camp.  Damp rock is way too slippery, even for Sliders with guide sticks and diamond-studded boots.


Still, with the anti-slip mats down, and your hammocks and tarps up there is no need to go anywhere.  But then just as you're starting to relax, you feel the ground shake and the crash of rocks landing on the slopes around you.  'Eruption!' Gagnon yells as everyone leaps to their feet.  The next big shake knocks you back to the ground and rocks smack into the ground only yards away.  'We're sitting pangos here', Piver says.  'We've got to get to the caves or we're going to get flattened'.


But how are you going to get to the caves?  Dew has fallen and the rock is too slick.  Then, a huge rock smashes one of the sledges into a million fragments.  Your protective tarps and a row of hammocks are taken with it, turning your camp into a disaster zone.  More rocks fall, hitting members of your troop.  As you crawl to your knees, wondering what to do, it is Piver that makes a move.


'Quick, clip on to this', he says picking up a length of cable.  Piver fires a couple anchor bolts into the rock and quickly attaches the end of the cable to it.  As another shake shudders through the slope and more rocks crash into your camp, only six of you manage to clip on to Piver's lifeline.  Piver runs the cable through a ring on his harness and then grabs your arm, pulling you to the far right hand side of the camps safety mats.


'Everyone over here, we need to run and throw ourselves off the left side of the mat far as we can.  Ready?'  'I hope you know what you're doing', you say.  'Got another plan?' Piver yells.  He gives you a stern look.  'No, I didn't think so.  Right on three, two, one, go!'


And with that the six of you run as fast as you can and throw yourself onto the slippery rock.  At first, as you slide in a straight line, Piver pays out cable.  But then, as gravity takes hold and it starts dragging you down, you and the others become the pendulum on the end of a long piece of cable.  Suddenly you reach the end of the cable.  You change direction and start swinging back below the camp and over towards the entrances to the caves in the old lava flow.


You and the others are really moving now, sliding across the rock in a perfect arc.  Piver grabs a handheld launcher from his utility belt and points it at the lava flow as you reach the end of your swing.  Just as your group starts to slow, he pulls the trigger and the bolt streaks out and lodges in the rock of the old lava.  'Got it!' Piver says.  After unclipping from the long cable the six of you pull yourselves over to the cave's entrance and duck inside.  And not a moment too soon.


Another eruption, and rocks are landing all over your abandoned camp.  You and the other survivors work your way deeper into the cave, helped by the faint glow of a moon moth colony nesting near the entrance.  Once you're well out of the firing line, you sit and shake your head at your mistakes.  You should have realized those rocks on the plateau had been thrown from the volcano.  Why didn't you make camp in the safety of the cave from the very beginning?  Then you wouldn't have lost half the members of your expedition and 95 percent of your supplies".


The proofreader failed almost as badly as the protagonist did in this ending.  "You're" is used instead of "your", and a period is missing at the end of one sentence.  There are probably other errors too.  I often clean up the endings a bit when I post them here.


Anyway, it's interesting to see a Bad Non-Death Ending where you survive, but have destroyed your credibility as a leader.


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 3


Going right away from the lava in CHOICE #5 makes Piver say this:  "You said 'safer'.  That's like saying jumping off a 100 foot cliff is safer than jumping off a 200 foot cliff.  If this baby blows, we're in the bucket whichever way we go".  Gagnon disagrees and says this way avoids the risk of hydrogen sulfide from the volcano.  My character compares that to a "volcano fart", which convinces Piver to fart.  The Blair Polly writing algorithm must look something like this:


CHARACTER SAYS 'HOLY MOLY':  TRUE
CHARACTER SHOUTS 'GEEBUS!':  TRUE
SMUGGLERS OR POACHERS ARE PRESENT:  FALSE
A PERSON, ANIMAL, MYTHICAL CREATURE, OR LANDFORM FARTS:  TRUE


You Say Which Way cliches aside, we start looking for old lava tubes.  If that fails, we'll have to avoid an eruption and go west.  Most of the crevasses close to Mt. Kakona are filled in with cooled lava.  We drink some rainwater from slumps in the ground where crevasses once were.  Pressure ridges are potentially good places to mine because underground rocks have been forced to the surface.


Drexel can climb the overhangs and winch the rest of us up, but we have to leave the sledges behind.  We gather supplies for 2 days before setting out.  Then we make a startling discovery when we see a strange light.  It's a "self propelled drill" far more advanced than Lowlander technology.  Unfortunately, it's broken down.  Slimy morph rats approach, and the only way to avoid being eaten by them is to enter a hole the drill made.  On the other side, we find "domed structures made from triangular pices of black glass, beyond these are orchards and fields".


A girl the same age as my character knows who we are because her people have the robot birds to spy on us.  Her town will hold a feast to welcome us. 


"The girl smiles.  'Once you've eaten and rested, and told us your stories, we'll get you back to your sledges with the tyranium you seek.'  'You know about that too?' you ask.  'But how?'  The little bird flies to your shoulder, its eye scans you closely, then it flies back to the girl.  'Our tiny friends miss very little', the girl says.


And then as the sun drops below the ridge and you start to feel a dampness in the air, you hear a long blast from a whistle.  'Come, dinner's ready', the girl says.  'I hope you brought an appetite with you.'  You look over at a grinning Dagma.  'Oh yeah.  We never travel without one of those".


The unnamed girl's people must have either preserved or rediscovered the steampunk technology from Between the Stars, if the robot birds are any indication.  If this were Secrets of the Singing Cave, her civilization would be described in much more detail than a one-off ending.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

0 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 4


My suspicion about setting up the drill instead of the campsite in CHOICE #3 being a bad idea was correct, but I was wrong about it being lethal to our "hero".


"Piver is busy running pulleys and cables that will drive the driller when rain clouds appear over the ridge behind you.  Moments later the first raindrops appear.  This is the worst possible scenario for a troop out on the Black Slopes.  Rain is a Highlander's enemy and even with the first few drops you can feel your boot's grip on the smooth black rock starting to go.  'Emergency Anchors!  Now!' you yell as you pull the anchor gun from your belt and fire a bolt into the rock at your feet.  'Quick!  Clip on!'


Full on rain is falling now.  Unfortunately some of the others aren't so quick to secure themselves.  To your right, Drexel and Piver have anchored themselves to the now treacherous slope, but some of the Lowlanders aren't so lucky.  When water starts pouring down Black Gully and onto the plateau, the sledges are in danger of being washed away by the flash flood and you wish you'd got your troop to secure themselves better before worrying about the drill.


Then there is a yell from Piver and you see the supply sledge straining on its single tether.  Piver is trying to get across the slope to put an extra anchor in, but he's having problems staying attached to the mountain himself.  A screaming Lowlander goes sliding past, heading for the bottom.  Moments later, another trooper is dislodged and lost to the mountain.


With a tortured screech of metal, the supply sledge's anchor bolt is straining.  Then with a ping, the bolt snaps and the sledge is skidding down the mountain with most of your supplies.  'Geebus!' Piver yells as he struggles to hang on to Shoola, who's slipped down onto him from above.  'So much for dinner tonight.' 


As the water rises, the drilling machine is hit by the torrent and off it slides.  The machine misses Trodie by a foot.  Trodie is white and shaking, clinging for dear life onto his tether.  Thankfully, by sheer strength and determination, Dagma and Drexel have managed to keep the other sledge on the mountain, but only because it's nearly empty.  Then as quickly as it started, the rain stops and the excess water runs away.


Gagnon puts in an extra anchor and then rappels down to your position.  'Well, that went well', he says, shaking his head and cursing under his breath.  You look around at the chaos and realize your expedition is over.  Why didn't you secure the camp and put in extra anchors for the sledges before you tried to set up the drill?  Why didn't you listen to Gagnon?  You remember a lecture you had at Slider School about the difference between speed and haste.


Haste has cost you two members of your expedition and any self-respect you once had.  Now you have no option but to struggle back to the Pillars of Haramon with your tail between your legs and beg forgiveness for your lack of judgment.  'Watch out WAVs!' Piver yells.  You whip your head around and look up the slope, but you see no WAVs.  'What are you going on about, Piver!' you yell in anger.  'Sorry', Piver says, kicking the ground.  'I didn't mean to scare you.  I was just trying to show everyone that things could be worse.'  And Piver is absolutely right. . .but only just".


Another Bad Non-Death Ending where my poor leadership causes nameless NPCs to die.  Only this time the expedition doesn't even make it to the volcano before failing.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

0 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 5


Bringing more food instead of a drill in CHOICE #2 frustrates Gagnon, but I rationalize my decision by saying we can build a track around the Tyron Cliffs if we find a viable route, and we could make other discoveries as well.  The volcanoes are to the east of the Pillars of Haramon, and there's some description of the climbing process that doesn't need to be covered in this post.


A "disk-shaped light near Kakona's summit" can be seen from here.  Piver thinks it's a meteorite at first, but it's too slow, and meteorites don't have a silver glow.  Trodie mentions some UFO legends from the Lowlands, though of course he never uses that term for them.  My character thinks UFOs are "just stories in the Book of Myths". 


On the Black Gully halfpipe, Piver and Dagma are eager for a race.  We move our sledges without incident, and CHOICE #7 presents itself.  Gagnon says the downhill route around the Tyron Cliffs is easier, but we'll pay for it later with an uphill climb.  The uphill route is more difficult, but it's faster.  Gagnon concludes by saying "it's fifty-fifty".


Going uphill "while we're fresh" leads to an ending too long to quote in full.  Gagnon tries a Piver joke by saying "you've got to break open a pango's egg to find out if it's rotten", but Piver laughs at him, not with him, because rotten eggs float.


This region is too steep for most of our sledges, so Trodie and Drexel want to race to the top of the Tyron Cliffs.  Piver wants to compete too because he's lighter and carries less gear than the other 2.  His pocket launcher makes him the winner by a large margin.  "I win!  Bow before me, lowly Petronians".


One sledge goes with us to the top once we're hoisted up.  Piver notices red crystals unknown to him.  They're harder than blue diamond.  This discovery is far better than finding tyranium.


"Holy moly', you say.  'So what now, Piver?  This boulder is too big to fit on the sledge'.  'No worries', Piver says.  'We'll chop all the basalt off and just load the crystal.  Nobody at home is going to believe what we've found'.


'So what will we use it for?' you ask.  Piver giggles.  'Are you kidding me?  We'll be able to drill into black glass twice as fast.  We can make tunnels we never dreamed of, make tools to cut steps and form tracks. . .Geebus, all sorts of stuff.'


'But it's not tyranium', you say.  'That's what we've been sent to find'.  This time Piver's booming laugh echoes across the plateau.  'It's better.  Believe me, the council are going to think this is the best expedition of all time.  Look at the size of it.'  Gagnon slides over.  'Piver's right you know.  It wouldn't surprise me if they gave you a promotion for this.'


Everyone is in good spirits as they work, chipping the basalt off the boulder.  In the end, you are left with a red diamond that takes four sliders to lift.  After strapping the diamond carefully onto the sledge and covering it with a tarp, you start the trip back the way you came.  With the sledge being overloaded, it takes you twice the length of time to get back past the Tyron Cliffs and along the tracks to the top of Long Gully.


It takes a couple days to retrace your slide, but the closer you get to home, the more animated your troop becomes.  Everyone is laughing and telling jokes.  Some sing songs.  Dagma, knowing that more food is close to hand, has no hesitation in eating her last two energy bars.  Finally, after camping out for two more nights, the shimmering Pillars of Haramon appear in the distance.  It is only then that you truly feel your mission has been a success.


Crew from the base are outside the loading bay when your sledges pull up.  You can even see they've put a burner on for broth.  'How did it go?' one of the crew asks.  'Find anything?'  'No, nothing', Piver says trying to keep a straight face.  'Except a great big red diamond!  Geebus, you should see the size of it!"


Finding better mining materials will send Petronian civilizations higher on the "tech tree".



Results So Far


4 Good Endings

0 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 6


The final ending of the "player character leads the expedition" branch involves going downhill in CHOICE #7. 


Gagnon worries about everyone's legs being too tired to climb uphill later, but the narration suggests there are many obstacles and thin air on the upper slope.  Gagnon orders us to stop after some time sliding and and tells me to shine my headlamp at the ground.  It's a 6 inch thick black glass bridge over a crevasse.  It's a trap because it looks exactly like the ground until you look at it closely.  Piver suggests shattering part of the bridge and using the crevasse as a tunnel under the Tyron Cliffs.  


"Bridges have been known to hold a weighty sledge and then shatter when someone drops a cup of broth".  Still, Piver's plan works, and we hit a vein of treasure.


"Within another fifty yards, the wall has gone from having flecks to having wide veins of blue and red crystals.  'Wow, it's like another world down here', you say.  'Like a dream.'  'You do realize this wall is full of tyranium and diamonds don't you?' Piver says.  'I'm not sure what the red is, but it looks like diamond with a faint trace of something else in it.'


'Can we mine it?' you ask.  'Geebus yes!  We've struck the jackpot.'  The place you've discovered is so beautiful you don't want to leave.  'I suppose we'd better get back and tell the others.'  Piver sits on the ledge, his legs dangling over the edge.  'Maybe we could just sit and enjoy it for a while?'  You sit down beside the little engineer and breathe a sigh of relief.  'What a good idea, Piver.  We'll never have the opportunity to see this for the first time again.  We should enjoy the moment.'


In a few minutes you'll let the other know what you've found, but for now you just want to take it all in.  'This has got to be the biggest find in history', Piver says.  'We're gonna be famous.  Our grandchildren will talk of this find.'


'I suppose they will.  I just hope it doesn't change us too much', you say.  'I like my life at the moment.  All I ever wanted to be was a member of the Highland Slider Corps.'  Piver sneaks you a glance and grins.  'Geebus, you'll always be one of those.  Didn't they tell you when you signed up?  It's a lifetime contract!"


But I was a miner in the Secrets of Glass Mountain ending where I became a council member!  Here's the proof: 


"You think about your family and how proud they would be if you were to become a member of the council.  How their disappointment at you to become a miner rather than a Slider would wash away like pango droppings in a heavy rain".



Oh well, it's another Good Ending.  Most of the conclusions so far have been either "You find mining materials" or "You survived but failed the expedition due to a rookie mistake".  Will deciding NOT to become the leader lead to more interesting paths?



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

0 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Volcano of Fire Alternate Endings Part 7


Refusing leadership of the expedition is not an option in CHOICE #1.  I'm forced into it anyway.  "You think hard for a reason to back out, but can't find one.  Everyone is depending on you.  And a trip to the interior will be exciting.  You thump the table and nod.  'Okay.  I'll do it.  Where are we going?"


CHOICE #1 is actually about where you want to go:  Mt. Kakona, or Crater Canyon.  They're disguised as "be the leader" and "don't be the leader" for reasons only known to the "editor".  Crater Canyon was once believed to be a myth, but a miner raved recently about finding "huge snakes, robot hummingbirds, metallic spiders and strange people living near the hull of a huge, metal, bird-like craft" near a tyranium vein.  His claims weren't dismissed completely because the tyranium he brought back was 95% pure, and the best tyranium from other sources is only 80% pure.


The miner disappeared, and a witness said "a flying disk picked him up and carried him away".  Near the mountain, trackers found unidentified dust.  If it's possible to get more of the 95% pure tyranium, Sliders will no longer have to fear mild rain or dew on the Black Slopes.


CHOICE #8 is between a large group with more equipment, or a smaller and faster team.  Bigger is better, right?  The rationalization for this is that we'll need zip lines and more Sliders in case we need to defend ourselves.  To appease the Lowlanders, a random miner in my group suggests making the general's son Villum second-in-command.  Since the time of Secrets of Glass Mountain, Lowlanders have built more advanced machines that can cut steps on the Black Slopes.  The Highlander chief orders me to get my engineers to spy on the Lowlander machines, since the Lowlanders might be preparing for another invasion if the truce fails.  Piver will help with that.


Gagnon is the navigator as usual.  He's reading the missing miner's maps, and recognizes some of the landmarks.  But this means we have to move through Tyron Pass.  Villum spends much of his time sleeping on Dagma's sledge, and only wakes up when he has to.  "Again already?  All this climbing's giving me a headache".  Maybe we should have brought Trodie instead.  Villum's step-cutting machine is efficient, however, and slices ovals into the rock. 


Dagma doesn't think highly of the aristocratic Villum:  "Everyone works hard, except Villum, who expects to walk up without having to carry anything, and then complains that he's tired.  Dagma's at the end of her patience when she pulls you aside.  'Permission to send this bleating LoLa to the bottom."  So Piver didn't invent the HiLa and LoLa terms!  At least if the continuity is consistent.  Piver distracts Dagma for a while with bad pango jokes.


The landscape below the mountain is unusually green, and "an emerald lake shimmers in the last of the afternoon sun."  Crater Canyon's probably near a local volcano, because there's no point in naming the book Volcano of Fire if there aren't any of those for a large portion of the book.


Gagnon offers 2 options for CHOICE #9:  a dry watercourse for sledges, or a broad ridge we'll need to zigzag to get through.  I'm wary of watercourses in Blair Polly books after the precedent set by a boulder Death in Pirate Island.  Let's try it anyway, because this is Alternate Endings where there is no score.


Zigzagging is required even for the watercourse.  "None the less, Gagnon is an expert guide and it isn't long before a couple of side streams join up and the watercourse becomes wider and more easily negotiated.  You reach the bush line forty-five minutes later.  Trees and other strange plants begin to crowd the banks of the watercourse.  After an hour, the dried up watercourse is a ribbon of black glass running through a forest fof green, the likes of which you've never seen before".


Highlanders live in such an inhospitable environment that "trees are an alien species to you".  Several of the plants form into chairs, footstools, and couches.  My character is concerned because this behavior means the plants are intelligent.  Those who've read the Between the Stars playthrough will know how the plants act this way.  But it's a trap.  We're all tied up.  Some half-plant humanoids approach.  A lack of proofreading becomes evident when I say "We mean you know harm". 


The plant-man replies to me with "Invaders always say that.  Then the next thing you know they are chopping down the trees and digging up the ground".  I say that we're only looking for tyranium, and the plant-man claims that plants don't need our "trinkets".  They are content with soil and rain.  My captor says human greed ravaged the planet humans and plant-men came from.  Gene splicing was responsible for the plants of Petron, which are all related.  I'm told to sleep so we can be ready to travel to the plant settlement tomorrow.


The plants let us go temporarily, which gives Dagma an idea.  She has moth mist, a "prohibited substance" that is often used to calm people down, or as a sleeping aid.  Dagma thinks we can escape while the plants are knocked out, but the narration points out that plants probably won't react the same way to it as humans.


CHOICE #10 is to follow Dagma's moth mist suggestion, or obey the plants and sleep.  For this ending, I'll pick the less suicidal option.


I confiscate the moth mist from Dagma because she's on patrol.  I also have to order Villum to shut up because he wants to escape too.  The plant-man tells me that if we run away or harm the plants' "pets", we will be eaten.  Villum doesn't take the hint and tries to boss the plant around.  "I demand some respect here.  My father is a general and if you don't".  The plant assumes a snake form and constricts Villum.  "How about a hug?  Would you like one of those you arrogant fool?"  He's only let go once he turns blue. 


A nearby structure has metallic feathers, just like the Victoria in Between the Stars.  Robot hummingbirds are flying around to investigate us.  Some people come out of the structure and welcome us to New Londinium.  Piver offers an old woman cold fried pango, and she asks where we can git more.  Turns out his father is a pango hunter.  I ask for tyranium in exchange.  But there's a catch.


"We have lots of tyranium, but we need to cement our new relationship with a wedding.  My eldest daughter is of marriageable age and needs a husband.  After an unusual run of girl children, we've very few men left in our community.'  This is not what you expected.  'Well sure, I guess.  Who did you have in mind?'  The woman turns and waves her daughter forward.  'I think it is for her to decide, don't you?' 


'Sure, I suppose', you say.  'Geebus', Piver whispers.  'She's beautiful.'  'She is also our genetic engineering specialist', the woman says.  The tyranium trade is vital to your communities.  If a marriage will seal the deal then that's what you'll do.  'Okay', you say.  'As long as whoever your daughter selects agrees as well.  It's only fair.'


'Agreed.'  The woman turns to her daughter.  'What do you think, darling?  See anyone you like?'  'I could give your daughter a good life', Villum says, stepping forward.  He gives the girl a quick once over, smiling at what he sees.  'I'm the son of a general and have many servants.  I could give your daughter a life of luxury.'


The girl looks at Villum.  'But what work do you do?  What knowledge do you have?'  Villum is a bit dumbstruck at her question.  'But I have riches, and farmlands, and-'


The girl smiles and reaches out her arm.  The arm turns into a long slim tendril and wraps around Piver's hand.  'But I like this one', the girl says.  'He's funny, and clever, and smells of pango.'  Piver smiles.  As he steps forward he does a happy little jiggle.  'Me?  Really?  Geebus!  I'd be honored".


Eva's descendants from Between the Stars guard New Londinium in Volcano of Fire.  Is the lack of men in that community due to genetic engineering mishaps?  Will Villum be redeemed in any of these endings?



Results So Far


6 Good Endings

0 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings