Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 6


When you get thee to a Nunnery in CHOICE #7, you're greeted with a two page illustration of columns and stairs.  Other than some Maya carvings, it's unclear what the original purpose of the building was.  The only clue is that it's too dark to have been used for residential purposes.  A piece of paper on a wall says this:


"Hotel Maya, Chichen Itza, Room 927
Thursday night
You must come.  There is danger."


It's already Thursday in this timeline.  I can barely see someone moving from a neighboring room.  CHOICE #13 is to obey the note on Page 75, or disobey the note on Page 77.  R.A. Montgomery is sarcastic towards the reader in this ending. . .


"Don't like chances, do you?  OK, go ahead.  The next room is small and as dark as the others.  You step cautiously into the room.  Suddenly the floor beneath you gives way and you fall into a bright blue space, gathering speed at the rate of thirty-two feet per second.  The rush of air against you flattens your nose against your face, slicks your hair back, and squishes your lips.


The trap door opened onto a chute into the very heart of the Nunnery.  Three levels below ground lies a secret ceremonial chamber where magic was conducted.  Now you are but a participant in a great ancient Mayan ceremony.  THE END".


Am I sacrificed or what?  This is the laziest Inconclusive Ending I've seen yet!



Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 7


I spotted a mistake:  the note says Room 927, but all references on Page 75 after CHOICE #13 say that the Hotel Maya destination is Room 327.  Soldiers arrest me and start speaking in Spanish, but switch to English when my character doesn't understand.  For once I'm more skilled in real life than a CYOA protagonist.  The soldiers accuse me of being a revolutionary spy, and says that the Room 327 contact is in jail. 


CHOICE #14 makes no sense in the text.  Was it originally meant to fit in the CHOICE #10-12 branch?  I can either "plead innocence" on Page 83, or "tell the truth" on Page 84.  But by visiting the Nunnery rather than the Temple of the Magicians, my character was never informed of the Red Hand in the first place.  So pleading innocence is not deception at all.


"Captain, it's all a mistake.  I was on my way to my own room.  I just came to this room by accident.  I am no revolutionary or spy.  You must believe me'.  The captain laughs.  'They all say that.  You are all the same.  Spies, radicals, thieves.  We have a way to deal with you!'


You are handcuffed, put into a jeep and driven to Merida.  There, you are thrown into a small, damp, evil-smelling cell in the local jail.  The captain comes to see you the next day to tell you that the judge has given you a thirty-year sentence for plotting to overthrow the government.  'But I've had no trial', you protest.


'We caught you red-handed, and we don't believe in trials anyway.  These are dangerous times.  You can call this the Revenge of the Maya.  You have angered their ancient gods!'  he laughs.  He stubs out a cigarette in the earthen floor, sticks his short, brown hands in his pockets, and walks away from your cell.  You grab the bars of the cell and scream for help.  Three guards at the end of the corridor just laugh.  You will be in jail for a long time.  THE END".


The prison cell has the same fragrance as the cigarettes the CHOICE #10-12 police captain smokes, or the blood the ancient Maya priests have in their hair.  Apparently all the cops are Maya "neopagans" in this timeline.  Normally Santa Muerte gets all the "currently practiced creepy Mexican religion" headlines.  The illustration shows one of the cops snarling at the reader with all of his lower teeth missing.  Some kids will dream about him for a while after reading this part!


Long-term imprisonment is an automatic Bad Non-Death Ending.


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 8


The other ending of CHOICE #14 is a little happier for our hero, but still makes the quest pointless.


"But Captain, this is all a mistake.  I am here to find a lost friend.  I am no spy'.  The captain leads you into a room where three men are seated at a table.  They look up when you enter.  The thin one says, 'Wrong person!  Who is this?  That's not the one we want.'


The man says, 'Let the prisoner go.  We are just wasting valuable time.  The spy has had warning and time to escape.'  Is Tom the 'spy' they are talking about?  'As for you, we have decided to deport you', the captain adds.  'Deport me?  But what about my friend Tom?' you cry.  'Tom will have to take care of himself', is the stern reply.  THE END".


No illustration in this conclusion.  I should have mentioned in the previous post that wrongful imprisonment is a cliche in Mexican telenovelas, and it usually happens to female characters.  (e.g. La Madrastra, María la del Barrio)


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

2 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 9


Since I've determined the "present day" route is the left side of the map, and I've exhausted all the other possibilities there, we only have two endings remaining before more time travel.  Therefore I'll return to CHOICE #6 and visit Chichen Itza rather than Uxmal.


At the pyramid El Castillo I notice avenues leading to an "evil ball court" and a cenote.  Here it's clarified that sacrificial victims were dumped down the cenote.  The top of El Castillo is glowing red, and a "large spacecraft" appears?  What does it look like?  Neither R.A. Montgomery nor the illustrators say.


Manuel says the ruins are "contact points for other planets", and that the spaceship was carrying humans to planet Merganatic.  Don't ask me how Montgomery came up with that name:  the only Google results are for either Mystery of the Maya or morganatic marriages.


What follows is a depressing statement from Manuel:  "Earth is seen as a leading planet.  Other civilizations want to learn from us.  They send emissaries to ask us to return with them to an intergalactic congress on the rights of life in the universe".  Cue the Voltaire quote "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what then are the others?"


CHOICE #15 is to either visit planet Merganatic, even if I don't return on Page 62, or stay on Earth to "finish the job" on Page 64.  Let's read the boring ending first.  For reasons that may only be explained by esoteric Maya numerology, Page 64 uses only a few short paragraphs before going to the real ending on Page 22.  My character insults Manuel a bit by saying "Great show, Manuel, great show!  Tell me, how did you do it?  What is it, the set for some movie?"  Well, there were actual aliens in Movie Mystery Madness. . .


"As he walks away, Manuel turns to you and motions with a small rod.  A beam of light shoots out of it.  Suddenly you are so frightened that the hair on the back of your neck stands up and goose bumps appear on your arms.  The beam of light is like an eraser and it wipes your mind clear of all memory of the day.  Your last image is of a smiling Tom aboard the star cruiser.


Suddenly the spacecraft is gone and you are standing at the foot of El Castillo.  You can't remember anything that happened after your breakfast with Manuel.  It is quiet in the great courtyard.  Your big chance has come and gone.  You blew it.  THE END".


Did R.A. Montgomery invent the neuralizer before Men in Black?  It's also a rare "last thing you see" type of ending that isn't a Death.  The illustration shows Manuel wielding a glowing rod.  Manuel has dark skin, a white shirt, and several strands of hair sticking out.


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 10


Visiting planet Merganatic is not an ULTIMATE ENDING, and possibly not even a Good Ending.  This makes sense if Earth is stated to be better than other worlds, and they're looking to flawed humanity as leaders.  The ominous tone of the text makes me want to file it in the Inconclusive Ending category.


"One by one, the group standing at the pyramid enters the spacecraft by the transporter beam.  You notice that halfway to the spacecraft, their bodies begin to glow.  No one seems to be afraid.  Gaining confidence, you step into the transporter beam and are carried up into the spacecraft. 


You hear nothing as you shoot up and away into the far reaches of the universe, to the planet Merganatic and the great Congress on Intergalactic Life.  You wonder why the Mayan sites were chosen as contact points.  Their brutal and complex society seems an odd choice for other planets.  Who knows what lies ahead?  THE END".


Maybe the aliens were impressed with Mayan astronomy?  Or were the "gods" who demanded human sacrifices really from planet Merganatic?



Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings

[sunrise089]

This refutes any "strategy" that could be applied to R.A. Montgomery's books.  Now you know for sure, sunrise089.

Do you agree with that authorial decision Herman? I don't, but I figure you're likely the world expert on these books by now.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Do you agree with that authorial decision Herman? I don't, but I figure you're likely the world expert on these books by now.

I'm a PHD in "New Zealand interactive fiction" and "Spanish language writers who only publish one gamebook".  Or at least I ought to be after 100 pages of this thread. 


Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 11


Now we should be in the Classical Maya period for good, since all the present day plots are finished.  To proceed, I need to remain in Kabah village like I was warned in CHOICE #5, rather than trying to sail to Cozumel and lose both progress and memory to the time travel potion wearing off.


Old Dr. Lopez explains the Yucatan environmental degradation that led to the Maya cities' collapse:  slash and burn agriculture clears farmland, but then the soil dries out after 6-7 and nutrients are exhausted, so it's back to slash and burn.  Dr. Lopez suggests Chac the rain god has been good to them so far, but perhaps not for much longer.


The "Plumed Serpent" is mistakenly called Quetzalcoatl:  that's the Toltec and Aztec name from centuries later!  Kukulkan is the Maya name.  "Smoking Mirror" is the god of "wrath".  Tom was interested in the Overworld and the Otherworld, and maybe ended up in the latter, the "dark side", according to Dr. Lopez.  It's implied that he was sacrificed, since Dr. Lopez said Tom was more interested in the priests than I in the current timeline.


(Wonder how much this revised version includes the knowledge gained from the decipherment of Maya writing since the original publication.)


CHOICE #16 is to wait for Tom in Kabah on Page 23, or become a "seafaring trader" on Page 32 in hopes that the fishermen might know something.


Ending up in Cozumel without incident after CHOICE #16 may seem like typical R.A. Montgomery randomness, but it's actually clever.  The storm following CHOICE #5 must have passed during the time spent with Dr. Lopez in Kabah.  None of the traders know of Tom at first, until one incident when "rumors of a strange young man with white skin" on Isla Mujeres are heard.  This confirms that the player character is NOT of a skin tone that would be unusual in the Yucatan.  Is this is the first Native American protagonist in a CYOA?


CHOICE #17 is whether to follow up on the Isla Mujeres hint on Page 85, or to believe the rumor is "nonsense" on Page 86.  This reminds me of an incident in Things Fall Apart where the Igbo people start seeing Europeans for the first time:  before that, "white people" mean "albinos" to them.


A storm approaches from the east as we're sailing.  "Vicious waves pound the hull, and gale-force winds rip at the sails".  CHOICE #18 is to sail through the storm on Page 37, or try to find land on Page 102. 


"You are propelled through the seas as if your boat had a motor, instead of sails".  We end up in the future Cuba, and meet an amiable group of Arawak.  CHOICE #19 is to stay with the Arawak on Page 116, or return to the Cancun trade route.  ("Cancun" might have been a Maya name, and there were Maya ruins in the area, but the modern city was created in the 1970s.)


Fishing and gathering fruit with the Arawak is a good way to relax.  "You didn't bargain for storms at sea, or fights with priests, or raids on neighboring towns".  But I didn't raid anyone in the previous CHOICES!  New rumors say that "someone like Tom" is a prisoner in Chichen Itza, and the Isla Mujeres rumor is false.  CHOICE #20 is to investigate Chichen Itza on Page 123, or Isla Mujeres on Page 126.


Inside Chichen Itza, the Maya dress in bright colors and prepare a feast of "chicken, iguana, and bowls of maize, tomatoes and hot chilies".  Chicken?!  I've been forced to read Crosby's The Columbian Exchange in college history classes far too many times to overlook an anachronism like that!  Apparently chickens came with Columbus, but there is speculation that Polynesians brought them in the late 1300s.  Still far too late for this Classical Maya story!  Did these chickens drink time travel potions too?


There will be a sacrifice later on, or so the page says before revealing the real ending. . .


"At the sound of a huge gong, the crowds fall silent.  The priests march through the throngs to El Castillo-the great pyramid.  They mount the steps.  At the top of the steps the head priest raises his arms to the sun, and at that precise moment, the moon passes in front of the sun.  Sudden darkness envelops the area.  People are frightened.  The priest drops his arms.  When the sun once again shines as the moon continues its course, the people cheer.  The ceremony has been a success.  No sacrifice is needed.


You watch, amused by the way the priests have used knowledge of a solar eclipse to impress their people.  Knowledge can be power.  As a token of good will, the victims prepared for sacrifice are released; one of them is Tom!  THE END".


One Augusto Monterroso short story has a Catholic priest try to intimidate the local natives with his knowledge of eclipses, only for the natives to be Maya who know exactly what he's attempting.  He is promptly sacrificed.


This Good Ending comes without intervention by the player character or any secret agents among the Maya like Manuel.  The illustration shows a Maya priest in full regalia raising his right fist towards a moon eclipsing the sun while his left hand is holding a staff.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 12


Can't complain about this Death when CHOICE #20 warned that Isla Mujeres might be a trap.


"You wait for a boat to go to Isla Mujeres.  Late one evening, you are sitting next to your fire near a small rocky hill.  Thick brush surrounds you.  Without warning, a band of warriors rush at you.  Arrows fill the air.  Your guide is killed.  You fight back as best you can, knocking down two of your attackers with stones.  Then you run.  But an arrow hits you in the side.  It's a poisoned arrow.  Everything grows hazy, blurry, distant.  The world seems to be spinning about your head.  Your tongue feels thick and dry.  There is darkness.  You are finished.  THE END".


No "the last thing you see is. . ." stock line?  No illustration either.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 13


While returning to the Yucatan peninsula in CHOICE #19, the Maya sailors talk to me about astronomy, and constellations and Venus in particular.  Inside a fishing village, we trade food and "ornamental necklaces".  My character likes this job so much that they don't want to return to modernity and "bustling cities, deadlines, inflation, and pollution".  CHOICE #21 is whether to resist the effect of the potion wearing off on Page 127, or to accept the potion's effect ending on Page 128.


"There must be some way to stay in the past!  You just can't go back to the modern world!  The time potion wears off little by little.  One day you look around and all your new friends begin to fade slightly.  They become less distinct each day, until finally there is no one around you.  You are alone.  You are sitting in the sand listening to the waves crash on the beach.


'Help, Help!  I don't want to be here'.  There is no one to hear you.  THE END".


Side effects of time travel potions may include Limbo.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Mystery of the Maya Alternate Endings Part 14


If you let the time travel potion expire without any mental resistance in CHOICE #21, this non-ending occurs.  Neither CHOICE #21 resolution has a picture.


"What did you expect?  You really can't hold onto the past.  Time moves.  You were given a glimpse into the past-but only a glimpse.  You belong to the present and the future.  For you, your journey to the past has ended.  The present and the future are before you.  THE END".


At least in Cave of Time, the colonial American who comes back with you becomes a history professor!  Why can't this player character reveal their uncanny knowledge of Maya fishing villages and get tenure?


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

4 Neutral Endings

4 Inconclusive Endings