Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 2


Ending A on the JL path is another long one.  Solloway says "Who knows?  Maybe Wittmann is in a good mood and will decide not to throw you to the sharks".  But there aren't any sharks here, only mutant barracudas.  Solloway orders that we be sent to the brig, and perhaps be turned into mutants.  I stab one of the Nazis and use his corpse as a human shield.  Another Nazi gets a bonkus of the conkus from a wrench, or an "English key" as they're called in Spanish.  "The heavy instrument hits him in the face and makes him collapse in front of an astonished Solloway".


Solloway still taunts me and says the best thing I could do is to shoot myself in the head.  A grenade stops some of the other Nazis, and Wittmann is now frustrated.  "Do you think you could trick me, stupid American?  Give me the cube and I'll give you a quick and clean death".  But my grenades force him to retreat long enough for us to reach the torpedo room.  But Wittmann manages to grab Dr. Lucy Allen.


"Wittmann throws her against the metal walls and when her screams stop, she's torn apart like a rag doll.  You can't even scream before this horrendous spectacle.  You stay silent and paralyzed before the horrendous death of the woman you love.  The freak (engendro) that was once Wittmann throws himself on you, covered in Lucy's blood.  The cube burns in your hands and you notice burns on your skin.  You know the end is near, and one way or another that abomination will tear you apart like your unfortunate lover.


The blows on the steel door become stronger, and you notice the metal twists like paper.  You throw the shaking cube and point the automatic rifle at the warheads of the gamma torpedoes.  Then the metal warps and the tentacles move furiously, looking for your humanity.  You perceive the profound evil and hate in the crusty eyes of the deformed mass that was one Wittmann's head, and you believe you hear an anguished clamor that he can't reach you with his wet and nauseating tentacles.


You break into guffawing upon understanding that in spite of everything, you've won the game.  You smile and look at the tangle trying to open through the pieces of metal that are cutting its flesh.  You turn toward the torpedoes and throw a grenade before emptying the magazine onto the lethal explosives.


The last thing you hear is Wittmann's scream of frustration before everything goes to pieces.  END".


I save the world from Cthulhu and friends, only to die in an explosion.  Rather like the "driving the car into Guayota" ending in 22 Minutos:  Tibicenas.  Self-sacrifice endings are surprisingly uncommon in the CYOAs I've played.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Gustaran]

The House on Hollow Hill was one of the most fun CYOAs for me, and in a different way from the others.  La Prisión, Deadline Delivery, and Secrets of the Singing Cave were good because of their interesting settings.  House on Hollow Hill, on the other hand, has the thrill of chasing the ULTIMATE ENDING, using clues from solving puzzles in previous attempts, and learning which paths are red herrings.

To be honest, I found the writing terrible. The book quotations read like it was written by a complete amateur. The writing style and especially the description of the "treasures" with the short backstories were really cringeworthy.
But worst of all is the design of the "Mr Goosen" character: As you have pointed out yourself several times in your report, it's rather difficult to sympathize with a character who sends a bunch of kids into a house, where they might well be killed off, just so they have a chance to retrieve some of his old love letters.

And the ultimate ending is basically: "Hey, cool we helped the guy who tried to get us killed". And for all the troubles (besides the baseball bat), they get an ....old and used electronic keyboard! (check prices on Ebay )  and a gold watch from the asshole who put them in great danger. (You probably want to sell it on Ebay right away anyway, if you don't want to look like a total idiot walking around your high school with a golden pocket watch).

On top of that, it's not even proofread correctly.

EDIT: Just saw that the book is published by "CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform" and is recommended for grades 4-6. Ah well...

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 3


The last ending on the "deliver the Cube of Togolek to Wittmann on the submarine" route is B on JL22.


It starts off with the typical Solloway taunts.  "If you think the life of that man is worth more than the Cube of Togolek, you're very wrong, my friend".  This is after Lucy and I try to hold an SS man hostage.  The nonsensical expression "sweat like a pig" exists in Spanish too, as that's what we do when we go through the ventilation.  Lucy has an idea:  hook up the the torpedo generator, and the Cube of Togolek might be destroyed when it overloads.  I tell her we should run and swim out of here after that's done.


"Immediately, the murmur of the generator turns into an unbearable screech and the shining of the cube evolves into a blinding and painful flash that makes you avert your gaze.  The creature growls furiously and finishes tearing down the hatch.  With all your strength you run toward the gate to salvation.  With Wittmann stepping on your heels, you can perceive his acidic and pestilent stench.  The screech of the generator threatens to make your eardrums fly out, and before the brilliant waters of the Pacific receive you, you feel like that unbearable light is burning the hair off your back.


You swim with all your strength, motivated by horror and survival instincts.  When you reach the surface a few meters ahead, you discover the submarine is trapped in a storm of light that reaches its zenith in an explosion of energy that leaves you blind for a few minutes.


You feel a warm hand on you and Lucy's voice is comforting.  Then you realize the submarine has disappeared and in its place floats a kind of green ash that makes you shudder.  You remember that cube was a kind of dimensional portal and you wonder where Wittmann and his henchmen (esbirro) would have done with their dreams of glory.  END".


Always listen to Lucy, at least if she's written by José Luis Castaño Restrepo.  She's the only one who knows how to win without suicide.


Results So Far


1 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 4


The final José Luis Castaño Restrepo ending comes when I go down in CHOICE #3 without taking Abott's advice.  It's a short and mundane Death.


"You look at Abott with determination and descend through the tight stairs, to the interior of the submarine.  You jump on the mangled corpse and guts of the sailor and point in the direction of three hatches that open before you.  Then you turn around and strike the German who sticks out through the first hatch at your right, but you can't avoid the flash of an MP40 that tears apart your back and sends you to the world of the dead.  END".


Will the final CHOICE of the other authors come down to random chance?  Find out in the next episode.



Results So Far


1 Good Endings

3 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 5


Let's climb the coconut tree and hope the mutant barracudas will go away.  It worked with the hyenas in Lost in Lion Country!  This CHOICE #2 outcome makes it clear that Julio M. Freixa will punish my cowardice.  I tell Ronin to hide because "those bugs will make you into pieces". 


"Ignoring your supplications, the noble animal balances himself on one of the monsters, biting it on the snout.  However, he's easy prey for its demonic companions, who tear him apart like a rag doll in a matter of seconds".


So already when we move to a new author we lose our first companion.  Ronin was also a good way to detect danger.  Before one of the barracudas can reach me by climbing the tree, I jump to a "millennium ficus".  Lianas give me more places to jump.  I'm 20 feet over the jungle floor when I hear "a bird of paradise, but of an enormous size".  Unlike real birds, this one has a "beak full of pointed teeth, besides other anomalous characteristics".  It picks me up with its talons and flies me toward its nest.  I'll probably be food for its chicks (polluelos) the size of German Shepherds.


I have just enough time for CHOICE #3.  Try to climb down the tree quickly before the bird can finish me off, or throw myself at the bird's neck (pescuezo) and attack.  The page is JFS1, or "More monsters".


The bird doesn't expect an attack.  I jump onto its neck and bite its leathery skin.  It screams more in rage than pain, and I buy myself enough time to pull out a knife/razor and attack again.  Both "cuchillo" and "navaja" are used to refer to this weapon, so it's a bit confusing in the text.  When I stab the bird in the left eye, "it shakes with a spasm of pain, howling about its misfortune to the four winds".  Three more attacks prove fatal.  During the fight, the chicks are panicking because they know I'm a mortal threat.


The dead bird's wings soften the landing, and I glide for a while.  Now I'm in the ungle proper.  There's a wooden cabin that doesn't appear to be made by any indigenous people.  The buzzing of a generator tells me electrical devices may be present, and other secrets. 


Then I see Michael Abott tied to a chair and gagged.  A man dressed in a white lab coat is extracting an orange liquid from the vial and about to inject it with a syringe.  CHOICE #7 is to either break through the window and attack the scientist while his back is turned, or wait and find out if other people are there.


I take the first scientist by surprise, but there's another one threatening to inject the orange liquid into my arm.  I push a chair and trip him up.  "The syringe flies through the air, turning over itself until it reaches its apex, and falls directly onto the chest of its old owner.  You see how it stays nailed, oscillating like a roly-poly toy (tentetieso) in an almost comical way".


The other mad scientist throws liquid at me, and I dodge just in time.  It spills on the other scientist, creating a cloud of smoke.  I kick the remaining scientist in the solar plexus and knock him out with a elbow strike to the neck.  (Spanish has a suffix specifically for hitting with random stuff, -azo.  "Elbow strike" is "codazo" from "el codo".)


The scientist who was injected with the liquid grows numerous buboes, and he starts to bleed a green ichor.  Abott says "Thank Heaven, Ray.  These Nazis are crazy. . .They're carrying out experiments. . .obscene and indescribable experiments.  I've seen what they do to animals!  Now they plan to test them on people.  I was going to be one of their guinea pigs (conejillos de indias), but you appeared just in time".


Characters in horror fiction often say things are indescribable, but really the scientists in this book are injecting people with a serum to turn them into mutants.  Rather simple to explain.  No physics-breaking geometry or "colors out of space" here.


Abott understood some of what the scientists were saying because he speaks some German, but made sure the Nazis didn't figure that out.  He tells me the other Black Swan crew members were sent to a barracks, and doesn't know if there are any survivors. 


CHOICE #8 is to either go to the northeast over hills, or head northeast through the jungle.  Abott has no idea where the barracks is because he was blindfolded.  Not many clues for this decision, but so far the more dangerous-sounding options have been successful in the Freixa plot.


My suspicions about Freixa having a "fortune favors the bold" theme may be correct.  I don't die when I enter the jungle, said to be lethal in the Prologue.  Dr. Martini wonders if the path was made by "aboriginal tribes", but Abott thinks Captain Solloway is behind it.  "I never trusted that guy!"  He may have been a traitor in the JL story, but is he in the JFS route too?  Abott says Solloway was suspiciously calm when the SS arrived on the Black Swan, as if he expected them. 


Lucy may have a chance to survive, because the Nazis decided to experiment on men first and believed they could take a higher dose of the serum.  We hear the sound of drums coming from the interior of the island.  CHOICE #9 is to check out the place the drums are coming from, or go east to the coast to look for clues about the Black Swan.


Abott is scared of cannibal islanders, like any character in old tropical fiction.  "I only hope they don't throw us in a pot, Ray".  Dr. Martini says "What an imagination, Mike!  You have to stop watching those cheap movies".  But this is a pulp-inspired story. . .


Though the fates of several crew members may be more dreadful than being eaten.  "My God!' whispers Michael when you're close enough to discover its sinister nature, 'They're men. . .crucified men!"  Portal Oscuro will be the guaranteed winner of Most Violent CYOA when the next award post comes around.  Captain Solloway and Stanley the cook are hanging on the X-shaped crosses.  Solloway is still alive.  I cut down Solloway, and he begs for death.  But we tell him we're friends.  "Mike. . .I was an imbecile.  I never should have dealt with that German scientist.  I swear I didn't know he worked for the Nazis!"  Did Operation Paperclip not happen in this book's setting?  


Stanley and Solloway escaped from Wittmann, "that rat with only one eye".  Unfortunately, they ran into cannibals, so Abott is rightfully paranoid.  "They ate my eyes first!', howls the captain, 'And soon they'll come for another ration. . ."


A "grave and guttural" tribal chant approaches, so we have to leave.  Solloway's probably in no shape to come with us.  "Run, insensible people, run!  And remember. . .the infernal machine in the form of a spider. . .has its batteries on the abdomen. . .they didn't have time to solder the cover!"


When we leave, we barely avoid falling coconuts.  The fruits are moving, and soon spiders as big as cats come out of them.  Abott "pants like an old asthmatic mule", so he has trouble keeping up with me.  I try to fight to defend Abott, but it's no use against opponents that "move their four pairs of legs to an infernal compass, like the fingers of a demonic pianist passing over the whole scale". 


"The spiders bite him avidly, provoking an immediate (fulminante) allergic reaction in your companion, whose skin fills with red bumps (habones) while he collapses, incapable of breathing".  So Abott dies in this timeline too.


A wooden barracks has a Wundeswehr Mercedes Benz Wolf modified to use truck wheels. "It seems that around here, even the machines suffer mutations".  I overhear people talking about SECTAL and aliens, though Dr. Martini thinks they've breathed too much diesel smoke.  Lucy is tied up too.  CHOICE #10 asks me to either make a surprise attack now or hide under the all-terrain vehicle to wherever the Nazis keep their prisoners.  The former option seems like suicide because there are 20 soldiers.


I hold onto the bottom of the vehicle like a limpet (lapa), and my ride feels like a Wild West cattle rustler (cuatrero) being dragged by a horse.  My muscles "howl in pain, as tense as steel cables", but I hang on because of my breathing control learned in "that lost monastery in Nepal".  No retro adventure story would be complete without Himalayan training, I guess.


When we arrive at the former Japanese bunker, I see the "Fritz" guarding the entrance.  I have two options to try to kill him in CHOICE #11:  strangulation or knife throwing.  Dr. Martini is known for his knife skills, so I'll pick the latter.


Evidently I put all my skill points into Melee Weapons instead of Throwing.


"You carefully take out your knife from inside your boot, lamenting why you haven't chosen one of those models especially designed for throwing.  However, you trust that the goddess Fortune guides your hand; you take the impulse with your whole body and project the shining leaf toward your enemy, who's busy with his work.


The knife spins in the air, like the roulette of the fortune of a deadly casino.  The suspense makes the scene expand in time, like an old accordion played by a drunk sailor in a town fair.  Your heart stops in an instant, when the knife reaches its destination, hitting him between the shoulder blades (omoplatos) through the wrong end.  The impact of the blow makes the sentinel scream, with a mix of fear and pain, just before he turns to see the origin of the attack.


Too close to fail, he pulls out his Luger with reflexes enhanced by adrenaline and fills you with burning lead in a matter of seconds.  END".


Whatever flaws Portal Oscuro has, you can't deny that some of the prose is original.  I'll probably never see a sentence quite like the drunk sailor playing the accordion in another CYOA.



Results So Far


1 Good Endings

4 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 6


Both CHOICE #9 paths go to CHOICE #10, but you miss out on talking to Solloway if you head to the coast instead of following the drums.


The "surprise attack" plan against 20 Nazis in CHOICE #10 goes as poorly as the narration promises.


"Seeing red, you jump through the window into the barracks.  It isn't difficult for you to slit the throat of the German soldier closest to you.  He hasn't even seen you fall onto him like the angel of death.  You take away his Luger in a rapid furtive movement, but his companions are now pointing their weapons at you.


'Ray!  Nooooooo!'  You hear Lucy's anguished scream, but not its end, because you're now dancing to the sound (el son) of bullets that shake your body in a danse macabre.  Too late, you understand you've messed up any chances of saving Lucy with your imprudent temerity.  END".


Freixa rewards bravery, but not complete recklessness.  He had fun writing Portal Oscuro.  Maybe I'll check out his novel El Laberinto de Set when I'm doing my non-CYOA reading.


Results So Far


1 Good Endings

5 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 7


Trying to climb down the tree in CHOICE #6 gives the giant bird another opportunity to attack.


"You climb down the trunk, as quickly as you are able, but unfortunately your adversary is faster.  An unbearable pain shakes every fiber of your being when you feel the monstrous bird's talons hammering your shoulders.  You scream with your whole soul, incapable of resisting the primordial force that grips you.


When you manage to open your eyes again, you contemplate with horror the sharpened beak, sticking out of your bleeding chest.  Everything fogs up around you and you know you've reached your. . .END".


If Land of Lost Monsters has taught me anything, it's that you should always have a pointy object handy when a giant bird swoops down on you.  Then you can have bird on a stick.


Results So Far


1 Good Endings

6 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 8


I had to edit a couple of posts because I accidentally skipped a CHOICE # in the original versions.  Going east over the hills in CHOICE #8 skips directly to CHOICE #10.  All roads lead to coconut spiders.  And taking the cautious approach of finding out if there are more people in the wooden laboratory gives the player an extra scene, but still has the same effect as breaking through the window.


Strangling the guard in CHOICE #11 is successful.  Dr. Martini considers leaving him alive at first, but the world is at stake.  He's about the same size as me too, so it's the inevitable "guard uniform disguise" plot. 


Dr. Martini creates a homemade explosive from the supplies in the bunker.  I overhear Germans speaking in a combination of German and Spanish talking about the meteorite that's mutating all the wildlife.


"Zeit, zeit, zeit!  Time, time, time!  The scientists always need more time!' 


'But, lieutenant Wittmann, the nature of my work requires continuing with adequate procedures.' 


'The tunnel that will bring us to the key is almost finished, and I'm not thinking about waiting any longer.' 


'But, Herr Wittmann, we've already talked about that before.  The radioactivity that has mutated the local life forms in all probability comes from the meteorite, that according to all indications, is found in the bottom of that crater.  We don't have evidence of any key, but. . ."


Wittmann continues to argue with Dr. Gerber about what to do next.  Wittmann is confident in the prophecies of "the wise Forteanus" about the Cube of Togolek.  Gerber stresses the high Geiger counter radiation readings, and that any men who would go through the tunnel would need space suits to survive.  Wittmann sees the expendable prisoners as Plan A, and equipment can be used if they fail to bring back the cube.


Unlike the JL path, the JFS route has Wittmann disdain Dr. Gerber's SECTAL serum as useless rather than praise it as a path to godhood.  "If that poison had some use, we would already know".


CHOICE #12 offers the possibilities of lighting a gas can and burning everything, or maintaining my disguise and moving on.  It's getting late, so let's pick the obvious Death option and call it quits for the night.


"The madness of battle overpowers you, turning you into a modern version of the berserker warriors. . .or a one man kamikaze!  You light the Zippo and let it fall next to a rope covered in fuel, giving origin to a flaming serpent that ascends through the stairs to the gas can.  You calculate that you'll have time to load a few? (cargarse a unos cuantos) before the explosion.


You jump toward the center of the basement, making a dozen German soldiers look at you in astonishment.  Confused by you wearing their uniform, they're not capable of reacting before you unload a shot into the temple of the one closest to you, watering the cement floor with a puree of blood and brains (sesos).


You begin to sing the United States national anthem at the top of your lungs while your new Luger accompanies the melody with a stacatto of burning lead.  You don't hear anything, not even Lucy's scream when she recognizes you under the cap.  You don't feel the first impacts of bullets in your  voice box, absorbed in your destructive labor.  You notice the scientist with the white lab coat between eyebrow and eyebrow and everything goes. . .


BOOM!"


No FIN this time, only BOOM.  Freixa must love musical violence.  We have the accordion knife throwing scene, then dancing to the sound of gunfire, and now singing the Star-Spangled Banner while shooting Nazis.


Results So Far


1 Good Endings

7 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The House on Hollow Hill was one of the most fun CYOAs for me, and in a different way from the others.  La Prisión, Deadline Delivery, and Secrets of the Singing Cave were good because of their interesting settings.  House on Hollow Hill, on the other hand, has the thrill of chasing the ULTIMATE ENDING, using clues from solving puzzles in previous attempts, and learning which paths are red herrings.

To be honest, I found the writing terrible. The book quotations read like it was written by a complete amateur. The writing style and especially the description of the "treasures" with the short backstories were really cringeworthy.
But worst of all is the design of the "Mr Goosen" character: As you have pointed out yourself several times in your report, it's rather difficult to sympathize with a character who sends a bunch of kids into a house, where they might well be killed off, just so they have a chance to retrieve some of his old love letters.

And the ultimate ending is basically: "Hey, cool we helped the guy who tried to get us killed". And for all the troubles (besides the baseball bat), they get an ....old and used electronic keyboard! (check prices on Ebay )  and a gold watch from the asshole who put them in great danger. (You probably want to sell it on Ebay right away anyway, if you don't want to look like a total idiot walking around your high school with a golden pocket watch).

On top of that, it's not even proofread correctly.

EDIT: Just saw that the book is published by "CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform" and is recommended for grades 4-6. Ah well...

Oh, I missed this comment earlier while posting Portal Oscuro endings.  You certainly have a point about the amateur prose.  What I was trying to get at in the post you quoted is that it was fun to play, and the "point and click" style of gameplay is hard to convey through these posts.  It offered something a little different from the usual "pick one of multiple branching paths until you automatically get an ending" formula.


I think of CYOAs as games more than novels, so perhaps I'm more lenient on the quality of the writing than I should be.  Sort of like how most video game stories would be mediocre at best if sold as books.  My reviews of proper linear novels on Goodreads are often much harsher.  Oh well, I play them so YOU don't have to!


If you think the proofreading is bad in the quotations I post here, you'd be terrified if you read the original text.  Typos are a common problem in e-books, even if they're famous novels instead of obscure CYOAs.


We can all agree Mr. Goosen is a jerk.  I want to see a follow-up to House on Hollow Hill where you play as a member of the bulldozer crew who accidentally releases all the giant spiders, killer plants, and poison gas stored in the mansion.  Only YOU can stop the town from being destroyed by the legacy of Mr. Goosen's negligence and greed.


What do you think of some of the Spanish books, Gustaran?  At least as far as you can judge them based on my stilted translations.  And are there any CYOA books available on Kindle that you want to request?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Portal Oscuro Alternate Endings Part 9


Let's maintain my disguise in CHOICE #12 instead of lighting the whole bunker on fire.  I overhear two of the Nazis talking to each other.  In this paragraph, several of their quotations are in < and > signs, which probably means they're supposed to be speaking German here.  "It will be better for the prisoners to enter as soon as possible', says the lieutenant.  'I'll direct them in their barbarian language". 


"Listen to me, American pigs!  The only road to your salvation will be to collaborate with the Third Reich as explorers.  At the other side of this hatch there's a tunnel that leads to the heart of. . .an abandoned mine', lies the crafty (taimado) lieutenant Wittmann.  'There you must locate and bring a quite peculiar object to this bunker.  It's a component of great importance, and your diligence will be rewarded generously".


But the Prologue said that my enemies are the alternate history "Fourth Reich", not the historical Third Reich.  Gustaran must be furious at the "proofreaders" by now.


Wittmann suggests using the gamma torpedoes on the rocks, but Gerber whispers that they aren't tested for use on land.


The Nazis provide their hostages (rehén) with pickaxes, "maces", lanterns, and chisels (escoplo).  I then take the opportunity to throw my lighter against the stairs and close the door on the Nazis.  "A flash of machine gun fire penetrates inside the cave, ripping away wood splinters and ending the life of Mathews, one of the Black Swan sailors.  A few seconds later, the explosion is noticeable, and in your imagination you can see the tongues of flame descending the stairs and scorching the human rats in its path.  The noise of a collapse begins to rise, shaking the foundations of the bunker".


The 4 survivors and I, including Lucy, run away "like a soul the devil wears", and the roof of the tunnel caves in "like a castle of cards".


We enter a polished and humid basalt cavern.  The presence of a "viscous substance similar to mucus, that's slippery like wet soap" disturbs our heroes. 


Toby, one of the survivors, says he wants to take the lead because he was a spelunker during his time in the military.  But Dr. Martini says "I myself have participated in an infinite amount of underground expeditions, some of them of great difficulty".


CHOICE #13 determines which one will likely be murdered by whatever lives in this cavern.


Sending Toby must be the correct answer, as shown by this ending on JFS18.


"You look at Lucy sidways and a wave of testosterone, that almost leaves a smell in the environment, runs through your bloodstream.  You feel like too much of a man to let anyone be the star of this film.


'Step aside, Toby', you say, in a serious tone, 'I'm going to find the way to return to the surface.'  You adventure in the shadows, that retreat before the light of your lantern like crows scared off by the hunter.  The rest of the expedition awaits you in silence, almost without daring to brive.  Ten steps farther, you turn around to say 'All clear, kids.  You can go without. . .'


But you're never able to finish the sentence, due to the point of a spear sticking out of your chest, appearing suddenly like a sinister headstone (lápida).  You fall to your knees, incapable of understanding what had gone wrong.  You can't see it, but the lizard-man who just killed you didn't come alone, and soon will dispose of the companions you tried to protect in an analogous manner.  END".


I have "speleologist" on my character sheet, but attempting to use this skill gets me killed for my bravado.  Go figure.



Results So Far


1 Good Endings

8 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings