RPG Gamebooks

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Prologue


To prevent the other gamebook thread from becoming too unwieldy, I've decided to post the solo RPG stuff here.


I recently found Heart of Ice, a gamebook written by Dave Morris, perhaps best known for his Fabled Lands series.  Heart of Ice has a setting unusual enough that I should explain it here before playing.


By 2031, weather control satellites were created to repair Earth's climate and ozone layer.  The supercomputer network controlling these is the Global Artificial Intelligence Array, or Gaia for short.  The plan was successful, at least until 2037 when Gaia started to have glitches including random shutdowns, heat waves strong enough to crack Paris's pavement, flash floods in Bangladesh, Australia having "torrential rain", and central Asia turning into an "arid wasteland".


These problems were the result of a computer virus, which London scientists tried to stop by hacking into Gaia in 2054.  Gaia rewarded London for this by nuking it into oblivion.  Soon Gaia conquered the computers controlling weapons systems and communications too.  One American president said "She was intended as mankind's protective mother, but this 'mother' has gone mad".


"It is now the year 2300.  The rich stand aloof, disporting themselves with forced gaiety and waiting for the end.  The poor inhabit jostling slums where disease is rife and law is unknown.  Between the cities, the land lies under a blanket of snow and ice.  No one expects humanity to last another century.  This is truly 'the end of history".


And after that thinly veiled reference to Francis Fukuyama, it's time to pick one of 7 classes, or create a custom character.  Since this is my first RPG gamebook, I'll stick with a default class for now.  All player characters start with 4 Skills, 10 Life Points, and 30 scads.  Life Points are Hit Points, and you die if you go to 0.  Scads are the local currency, and there's no capacity limit because they're stored on a sort of debit card.  This may be an icy wasteland where humanity is about to become extinct, but the banking system still works.


I'll explain Skills in greater detail once they become relevant, aside from the ones that come with my class.  Might as well pick Visionary for now.  It comes with Close Combat, Cunning, ESP, and Paradoxing.  Close Combat is a martial arts Skill based on "karate, ju-jitsu, and t'ai-chi".  Cunning is used to "think on your feet and devise clever ploys for getting out of trouble".  ESP is a combination of mind-reading and Spider Sense.  And Paradoxing is the power to defy physics with your mind.


Both ESP and Paradoxing require a "psionic focus", which counts as a Possession.  Characters can only have up to 8 Possessions, and automatically start with whatever they need to use their Skills.


The campaign setting is what's left of the Mediterranean region.  Lower sea levels and ice have altered the geography substantially.  The Iberian Peninsula is now connected to Morocco, cutting off the former Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean.  Sardinia and Corsica are now a peninsula connected to mainland Europe.  The Ligurian Sea is the area between Iberia and Sardinia-Corsica.  There's a Gulf whose full name I can't read because of how tiny the font is on the map, but it's between Sardinia-Corsica, Tunisia, and the Sicilian peninsula.  The Inland Sea is the name for the former eastern Mediterranean.


But most importantly, the Sahara Desert is now the Saharan Ice Wastes.  The Lost City of Du-En far to the south of Karthag is the object of my quest.


Unlike the other gamebook thread, this one will probably not have 100% completion playthroughs.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Visionary Playthrough Part 1


My Visionary begins the story in the Etruscan Inn in the Apennine Mountains.  The local waterfall is frozen, and there will be more snow soon.  My room is "dingy".  Other travelers are hunters and traders from southern Italy who spend much of their time gambling and drinking liquor.  Some visitors stay here to work. 


"If a few such, gazing up at the ice-capped peaks, found their spirits daunted and chose to stay, who can blame them?  You sometimes wonder yourself why you bother to press on across the world in the teeth of such hardship and poverty".


The Etruscan Inn was once an "air cruiser" that crashed in 2100 or so.  Someone took the opportunity to take this technologically advanced wreck and convert it into an inn.  Electricity is rare in 2300, and repair robots called "careteks" survived the crash, reducing maintenance woes. 


I spend some time watching a screen, but it seems almost pointless at first because Gaia randomly changes the channel.  The innkeeper tells me the programming includes 100-year-old newsreels, movies, documentaries, and weather forecasts.  Gaia never lets anyone get the satisfaction of seeing the end of any of the footage.  Some guests demand that the screen be turned off, but that can't happen.  Even if someone destroys the screen, the careteks would repair it.


One man shouts "Preposterous!  It says New York will be having thunderstorms.  There has been no rain in New York for years.  It is buried under half a mile of ice!"


While I'm trying to sleep, I hear parts of "a game show probably taped before your great-grandfather was born" and 21st century science fiction movies.  But I can't rest, so I watch the screen instead.  One report that intrigues me comes from 2095, which happens to be about the air cruiser crash that created the Appenine Inn.


Another news report from a few months later mentions how Volentine Watchers cultists seized the meteorite they worshiped before scientists in Cairo could perform detailed tests on it.  Another report says this Heart of Volent was held by the Volentine Watchers for 20 years.  They supposedly built the lost city of Du-En and learned to control its power in the Paradox War.  Du-En's society collapsed during a civil war.


If the report is to be believed, the Heart of Volent would "activate that creature's total psychic potential" if a sentient being were to touch it directly.  "In effect they would gain ultimate power over their surroundings".  This is more difficult than it sounds because the Heart of Volent emits an unknown radiation.  What seems to be a human reporter is none other than Gaia herself.


Of course, my Visionary wants to seize the Heart of Volent's power, along with all other player characters.


I ask the innkeeper how to get to the Sahara.  "The most obvious course would take you to Venis, where you could board the ferry for Kahira, and yet. . .Myself, I'd be tempted to go instead through the Lyonesse jungle, just to savour a bit of warmth in this frigid world.  Thence across the Jib-and-Halter and the Atlas Mountains-unless you stumbled across the ruins of lost Marsay, of course, in which you might even find a tube tunnel to take you straight to the Sahara".


You know it's the future if you travel by tube.  According to this 1994 book and some of the entries in the true Choose Your Own Adventure series, anyway.


CHOICE #1 comes when I see a "small dapper man in a grey-trimmed white snowsuit" named Kyle Boche, who's apparently already paid my bill.  How nice of him!  My options are to either take him with me, or go solo.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Visionary Playthrough Part 2


I'm certain Kyle Roche is going to backstab me at the last minute to take the Heart of Volent for himself, but he might be useful at the beginning.  Besides, I could sacrifice him to some random encounter if necessary.


CHOICE #2 comes almost immediately afterwards.  "I overhead you say you were bound for the Saharan Ice Wastes', says Boche.  My own journey takes me in that direction".


Boche tells me a series of black wooden posts is the way to Venis, but I can still go west to the Lyonesse jungle as the innkeeper suggested.  That has the promise of tube travel, and I'm intrigued.


Boche isn't pleased with my decision.  "The Lyonesse region is infested with malefactors and noctambules.  We would be at great risk.  Also, the Atlas Mountains are a daunting obstacle.  As your partner in this venture, I strongly urge you to reconsider."


Civilization may be dying, but wanderers in the 24th century wasteland have a surprisingly advanced vocabulary.


CHOICE #3 asks me to either go to Venis with Boche, or ditch him and head to the Lyonesse jungle solo.


Kyle Boche doesn't want to have any fun, so I'll leave him behind.  My Visionary's greatest dream other than finding the Heart of Volent is to ride in a tube.


"As you travel west, the bitter cold begins to ease.  Instead of wild blizzards, you find yourself trudging through flurries of soft sleet.  After several days you see a harsh light on the horizon.  Ahead looms an arc of sunlight slanting through a wide gulf in the clouds.  Even when night falls, the light keeps blazing down.  An old weather satellite far out in space, misdirected by Gaia's freakish whims, bathes the landscape in endless sun.  These are the steaming swamps and jungles of Lyonesse".


When I arrive in an area north of Lyonesse, I learn that the city of Lyon manages to survive because of the arable land provided by the satellite.  But the jungle itself "is the stalking ground of mutated beasts and carnivorous fungi".


I take off my furs and am startled by how noisy the animals are in comparison to the rest of the world, where I can hear only wind most of the time.  Plants in this region include "foliage like ships' sails", flowers that look like jewels, creepers, and ferns.  I start to fall asleep.


CHOICE #4 is a Skill check for either ESP and a psionic focus or AGILITY.  If I didn't have either, I'd be forced to go to page 75.  But the Visionary class has ESP.  Who needs companions if you're a wizard?


"Cold reptilian thoughts seep into your brain, jolting you awake.  Your gaze flicks across the swaying fronds around you, searching for the source of the thoughts.  Warned by an intuitive impulse, you glance up in time to see a narrow fang-lined snout dropping on a long neck toward you.  Leaping to your feet, you cast a handful of soil into the creature's eyes and race off through the trees".


Wouldn't reptilian thoughts be warm here?  They are ectotherms, after all.


I see a city in the jungle, which must be the ruins of Marsay.  Most of the buildings have been destroyed by vegetation, but "other towers still stand gleaming, bright glass and polished steel glorious in the dappled green-gold light".


Various animals fly around here, such as birds and a giant bee.  They ignore me for now.  My character is so impressed with Marsay that it gives the impression of "a blind man suddenly given the gift of vision".


CHOICE #5 asks me to either follow an avenue into the parts of Marsay that the careteks maintain, or go further into the jungle.


A hermit named Portrin Fax meets me when he leaves a building.  He's holding a shovel, but seems more like he's anxious than someone who wants to kill me.  He throws the shovel aside and takes me to his home, a former transit terminal.  Fax offers me a drink that's "My own liquor.  I brew it by mixing herbs into a tank of cleaning fluid".  My character immediately throws it away when Fax has his back turned.  No Skill check or anything.  The Visionary is smarter than some CYOA protagonists, I'll say that!


Fax chats with me some more.  "A hermit, that's old Fax.  In the outside world I was a misfit, but here I live like the Sun King.  The city has generators which supply light and keep the air cooled.  Who would dream, in this time of the fimbulwinter, that a man might wish for a cool breath of air?  But here in Lyonesse it is necessary".



CHOICE #6 is a LORE check.  LORE is a Skill that's mostly knowledge of history and legends.  So my Visionary probably doesn't know about either the Sun King or "fimbulwinter" due to lacking LORE.


Fax lets me sleep on a couch and tells me "Morning".  The Visionary doesn't know how Fax can tell, until he points to a clock.  Fax also studies the movements of the sun, and claims there may be a 2nd one.  I tell him the "second sun" is a mirror in space.


CHOICE #7 gives me the options of asking Fax to show me where he gathers food, ask about the "barren patch of ground" near his home, or leave and go west.


Out-of-character, I have an odd feeling that Fax conks visitors on the head with his shovel and eats them later.  But the "barren ground" may have the tube I want to ride.


Fax doesn't talk when I ask him about the barren ground.  Instead, he takes a metal canister out of a locker and sprays ferns with the contents.  This is the Possession "vine killer".


"It's well to keep the surrounding area free of plant life, you see.  The sanguivores travel rapidly through the trees, but they will not venture onto barren ground, where they are as clumsy as waterlogged tents flapping in a breeze".


Sanguivores?  That means bloodsucking plants.  Good thing I have this herbicide now!  I return to CHOICE #7 minus one option.


Fax gets his meals from a barely-functional "food machine".  He gives me a Skudge Bar from the vending machine, which tastes like a "chewy fudge".  I can fill up my whole Possessions inventory with Food Packs, but I think I'll only need one.  



CHOICE #8 checks for CYBERNETICS.  Since I don't have that Skill, I'm forced to decide between going west into the jungle or exploring the tunnels.  Most of the tunnels seem useless, because they lead to New York, Moscow and Edinburgh, which are completely frozen.


CYBERNETICS enables players to "program and operate computers".  And since I neglected to explain it earlier, AGILITY lets characters "perform acrobatic feats, run, climb, balance, and leap".



Character Sheet
 
Visionary
 
Life Points:  10
Possessions:  Psionic Focus, Vine Killer, 1 Food Pack
Money:  30 Scads
Skills:  CLOSE COMBAT, CUNNING, ESP, PARADOXING

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Visionary Playthrough Part 3


"Questioning the motilator, you consult a map which it projects onto the front window of the carriage.  The subway has an intercontinental range, but most of the terminuses are now either inactive or destroyed.  Nevertheless there are several destinations which are still marked as in service, and any of them would bring you closer to your goal".


I was hoping the Visionary would travel by something like a pneumatic tube, not a subway!  Oh well, I'm committed to this path.  CHOICE #9 is to travel by subway, or trudge through the jungle like previous CHOICEs offered.


CHOICE #10 is the subway's destination:  Kahira, Karthag, Tarabul, or Giza.


"Tarabul" seems to be Tripoli's future name, and that's closest to Du-En.


I stare out the carriage window, although there's nothing to see because there are no lights.  A few hours later, I "emerge into a maze of partly collapsed corridors."  CHOICE #11 is an ESP and psionic focus check, as there is light plastiwood I can break.


As my readers may have noticed, ESP isn't for destroying stuff.  "There are men beyond the plastiwood partition.  You read their thoughts:  three hunters.  No doubt the cruelty you see in their minds is only a symptom of their harsh existence on the fringes of the Sahara.  All the same, you are wise to stay concealed.  They are not above murdering lone travellers for the clothes on their back".


I use my mind reading abilities to sneak past the hunters and run into the blizzard.  Even though I avoided Death, the journey is still harsh.  I lose 2 Life Points from a snowstorm that makes "each breath rasp" and my limbs "weary and numb".  If I had SURVIVAL, I would only have lost 1 thanks to improvising a way to preserve heat better.


CHOICE #12 is more complicated in terms of game mechanics. 


"A fierce wind with teeth of ice thunders relentlessly across the land, pushing billows of powdery snow ahead of it.  You hunch behind each step as though pushing a heavy cart, at times having to crouch down to avoid being blown off your feet.  By day you are surrounded by a painful white glare.  At night, moonlight turns the snowscape into a scene of unearthly mystery.  You trudge wearily on, feet numb with cold, eyebrows bristling with icicles".


I've had enough experience pushing heavy carts out-of-character that I have a pretty good mental image of this situation.


I automatically lose 2 more Life Points for not having either a Fur Coat or a Cold-Weather Suit.  (Why wouldn't all characters have those in this Ice Age future?)  If I had either item, I would have still lost 1 Life Point, or 0 if I also came equipped with SURVIVAL.  The penalty would have been reduced by 1 if I had a Burrek. 


CHOICE #12 gives me an option of using Polarized Goggles, SURVIVAL, or nothing.  Guess what the Visionary has?



Character Sheet
 
Visionary
 
Life Points:  6
Possessions:  Psionic Focus, Vine Killer, 1 Food Pack
Money:  30 Scads
Skills:  CLOSE COMBAT, CUNNING, ESP, PARADOXING

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Visionary Playthrough Part 4


More bad news for the Visionary comes after CHOICE #12.  Entering a blizzard without any warm clothes isn't a good idea?    


"Sunlight, hazed by a high overcast, is thrown up from the snow dunes in an unremitting glare as white and harsh as exposed bone.  Squinting does no good.  Your eyes feel gritty and tired.  On the fourth evening, huddling behind the shelter of a crag of ice, you gaze across the landscape.  It is like looking through a film of blood.  The next day you feel the sunrise burns so hard that you cannot stand to open your eyes.  Snow blinded, you can only sit and wait for the dazzle to clear.  If you were to press on now, you would soon lose your bearings and die."


The Visionary loses 4 Life Points total.  A penalty of 3 comes from facing the cold without a Burrek, and another 1 is a punishment for not having a Fur Coat or Cold-Weather Suit.


CHOICE #13 is a Food Pack check:  "The wind, blasting between the tors, makes a desolate keening sound.  You see no signs of life.  Cold gnaws at you from outside, hunger from within."


I can either use up 2 Food Packs, 1, or none.  The Visionary just had to keep a light pack, according to my bad decisions, so I only have 1.  Is the Skudge Bar as nutritious as Fax claimed?


"You gnaw wretchedly at your meagre provisions, trying to ration out what remains so that it will last as long as possible."


Another punishment for not having SURVIVAL comes when I lose 1 Life Point for being unable to trap a bird for food.  Only 1 Life Point away from Death!


As I continue my journey, I see a "huge sabre-fanged bometh standing on a rise not fifty metres away.  You slink behind an ice boulder, not certain if the creature saw you".


My CHOICE #14 options would be numerous if I had any decent Skills other than psychic powers:


-Use Enkidu codeword
-SURVIVAL
-SHOOTING and Barysal Gun
-Stun Grenade
-Track bometh with Binoculars
-Close with bometh
-Sneak away


The Visionary successfully sneaks out of the bometh's view.  "Then you catch a sulfuric tang in the air and realize that the warm updraught here must be rising from fissures deep underground".  It's a hot spring.


CHOICE #15 asks me to either rest at the hot spring, or leave immediately.


There's an ominous one-line page right before CHOICE #16 when I decide to rest.  "If you have SURVIVAL, turn to 58.  If not, but you have the codeword Enkidu, turn to 81.  Otherwise, turn to 103".


I can't drink water from the hot spring, but I can just melt some snow for that.  As for food:  "If someone had told you even two weeks ago that you would be eagerly chewing grubs and insects for sustenance, you would have laughed them to scorn".


The environment is healthy enough for me that I now have 3 Life Points instead of 1.  But I probably shouldn't stay too much longer because I start to feel nausea.


CHOICE #17 is to either leave the hot spring and learn the codeword Hourglass, or stay for a few days.


The Visionary sets out for the last time.


"Surrounded by a limitless expanse of snow, you slog wearily towards your goal.  The sun slides low in the sky, wavering like a blob of flame-orange oil against a sky of swirling violet.  As it disappears in a scud of cloud lying along the horizon, you feel the dreary chill of day begin to yield to the frigid tyranny of night.


If you lack either a Fur Coat or a Cold-Weather Suit, lose 4 Life Points.  If you possess either of these items, lose only 2 Life Points.  (Lose 1 less Life Point if you have SURVIVAL, and 1 less if you possess a Burrek.)


Assuming you survive, turn to 444."


Life Point attrition from the cold kills my first Heart of Ice character.  So much for CLOSE COMBAT, CUNNING, and PARADOXING!  Those Skills never had any checks.  But ESP is a useful Skill in this route at least.

[Gustaran]

These problems were the result of a computer virus, which London scientists tried to stop by hacking into Gaia in 2054.

I read the complete prologue on Amazon and I find it hilarious that

"The system's designer began programming an antivirus, but died before his work was complete."

Too bad that there was only a single guy who knew how the computer system controlling the global weather acually worked...

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Scientist Playthrough Part 1


The 2nd Heart of Ice character will be a Scientist, who comes with the CYBERNETICS, LORE, PILOTING, and SURVIVAL Skills.  The Visionary became a popsicle after failing too many SURVIVAL checks in the Sahara, so I'm not leaving the Appenine Inn without that Skill this time.  In the previous playthrough, I did see a CYBERNETICS check in the Marsay tunnels, and a LORE option when talking to Fax.  PILOTING isn't picky about what kind of aircraft you're trying to control.  "The ability to handle virtually any vehicle from an air-led up to a space shuttle." Why would you want a space shuttle if the quest is to go far into Africa to find a lost city?  Maybe it could be used to shut down the weather satellites somehow. . .


However, I have no ESP this time, so chances are I should stay out of the Lyonesse jungle.  That means I'll travel with Boche to Venis in CHOICE #2 or #3. 


I learn the Diamond codeword as we travel through the Appenine Mountains.  The cold forces us to exhaust our ration supply.  We see a human on a ledge, but something isn't right. 


"Hurrying forward, you discover several other figures, but none are glad to see you.  They are beyond any emotion, in fact, being long dead and frozen into rigid statues by the cold".


CHOICE #18 is to either investigate the corpses, or continue walking in hopes of finding a town.


"Night overtakes you on the slope of the mountain.  You have to scoop snow to make a rudimentary shelter, and even so the wind numbs you to the core of your bones".


Characters without SURVIVAL would lose 2 Life Points here, but my Scientist only suffers a penalty of 1.


10 days after we left the inn, Boche and I reach Venis.  "Hungry and cold, you quicken your pace until you can make out individual buildings-first the temporary shacks where hunters and traders dwell, then the slums of corrugated iron and plastic which fill the narrow streets that some say were once canals.  Above them loom the blocks of ancient plazas, where the rich and powerful of the city reside in palatial buildings shored up with wooden scaffolding to support them from the ravages of time".


It will take a few days for the next Kahira-bound ferry to arrive.  Boche says he "has friends he must visit", so I'll have to find accommodations by myself.


CHOICE #19 features the "lavish" Marco Polo, which I can try to stay at with or without an ID Card for 12 scads per night, the cheaper Hotel Paradise for 6 scads, or the "disreputable" Doge's Inn for 3 scads.  Somehow, I think the Doge's Inn might be a good place if I had the STREETWISE Skill. 


But I don't want to take too many risks with my Scientist, so it'll be the Hotel Paradise.


"The Hotel Paradise proves to be a converted temple overlooked by a high bell-tower.  You stand looking up a the inside of the splendid domes.  Once, centuries ago, this vast hall must have rung with orisons to the forgotten deity of that age".


But I have LORE!  Shouldn't that mean that my character should be able to recognize a Christian church?  People in this setting have heard of "fimbulwinter" and the "Sun King", references less likely to be known than a major religion of the 21st century.


The Hotel Paradise stay is uneventful, so I check out the the "esplanade" above the Hazard Strip where gamblers play.  I notice "glaring neon lights and raucous music" at night in an alley that was formerly a canal.


CHOICE #20 has a variety of options.  I could try to talk to Gaia, learn more about the Heart of Volent, ask about missing travelers, learn gossip concerning Kyle Boche, or go shopping.  Buying Possessions sounds like it could be useful, but I don't know how much I could get for 24 scads.  And I have CYBERNETICS, so Gaia may offer me more than other characters.


A scribe on the street has "two laptop computers", and says he knows about letters and contracts instead of technology.  "I use the computer simply as a tool of the trade-just as my forerunners used clay tablets, sheets of papyrus, and quill pens".  So the average person in the Heart of Ice world has forgotten religions that once had billions of followers, but not the historical uses of papyrus.


I tell him that his laptop has a modem socket, but he's suspicious of trying to associate with Gaia.  "However, I heard of a man who linked his computer to Gaia and forever afterward it would do nothing except iterate prime numbers.  I would as soon infect myself with the yellow pox!"


CHOICE #21 is a CYBERNETICS check, as I predicted.  The way I manage to talk to Gaia without damaging the scribe's computer is that I use a modem so old it's immune to the viruses in her network.


"The scribe watches in amazement as you type your questions.  In this world of declining technology, what you are doing seems to him like magic".


-HELLO, GAIA.  PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT THE HEART OF VOLENT.


<IT WAS FORMED AT THE BEGINNING OF TIME.  THE PERSON WHO ATTUNES TO IT WILL HAVE POWER OVER EVERYTHING.


-HOW CAN YOU HELP ME TO GET IT?


<MY MIND IS NOT ALWAYS CLEAR.  YOU WILL NEED AN ALLY.  GO TO GIZA.  SEEK GILGAMESH UNDER THE PYRAMID.  HUMBABA WILL GIVE YOU ENTRY.


-WHAT THEN?


<UNKNOWN.  THE FUTURE.  A TABULA RASA.


The scribe is too frightened to let me use his laptop any more and unplugs it.  I learn the codeword Humbaba from my conversation with Gaia.  This is my only reward, and I go to the same page that would have happened if I lacked CYBERNETICS.


CHOICE #22 appears when a guide with a black coat called a "gondo" tells me there's a haunted treasure vault with computers and other technology.  For 3 scads, I could follow him.  Or I could refuse.


Character Sheet
 
Scientist
 
Life Points:  9
Possessions:  Nothing
Money:  24 Scads
Skills:  CYBERNETICS, LORE, PILOTING, SURVIVAL
Codewords:  Diamond, Humbaba

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Scientist Playthrough Part 2


As intriguing as the computer vault sounds, it might be a bust.  The gondo takes me past the slums of Venis, where "crude hovels with roofs of moss and scavenged fiberglass" are built on frozen mud.  "The inhabitants are crippled beggars who peer out in fear as you pass".  How do these beggars scavenge fiberglass if they're physically disabled?


I go with the gondo to a building buried under the snow.  It has a black metal door that's ice-free, suggesting that it has heating.  My guide refuses to join me because he thinks the vault is haunted.  "Scowling at him for his timidity, you step inside.  You are in a corridor lit by green lights in the ceiling.  The walls and floors are black".


But the gondo may have been right.  A "metallic ringing noise" is coming from the corridor.  CHOICE #23 is a SHOOTING check, but I have neither that Skill nor a Barysal Gun.  My remaining options are to run back to Venis or advance.  I did NOT pay 3 scads to a gondo just to retreat like a coward!


The robotic noises I've been hearing come from an innocent caretek.  I enter a "large circular room" with a black Manta sky-car.  A caretek has been maintaining it, so it's likely functional.  But a voice from another room tells me "Come here.  At once!"


CHOICE #24 is to either pass an ESP check, check out the room the voice is coming from, investigate the sky-car, or leave the vault.  The ESP option says I can "probe ahead for danger", so something's up with either the voice or the flying car.


The sky-car is so well-preserved that the LCD display and all instruments work.  A storage locker in the car has "food, medical supplies, and a variety of other items" sealed in vacuum packs.


CHOICE #25 is to either try to fly the car out of the vault, or ransack the storage locker and leave on foot.


I have PILOTING for a reason, so I'd better try to start the car.  CHOICE #26 is in fact a one-line PILOTING check.


"You settle at the controls of the sky-car and touch the button to power it up.  There is a deep hum, and slowly it rises into the air.  Hovering at a height of a metre above the floor, you cautiously engage the thrusters.  A blaze of blue-white light illuminates the rear wall as the sky-car cannons forward.  Quickly you reduce thrust, adroitly steering towards the corridor leading to the entrance.  A couple of times you bump the wings against the side walls, scratching, to your great annoyance, the perfect matt-black paintwork".


Who knew my Scientist was so obsessed with vehicle maintenance?  The gondo tries to run away from me because he mistakes my car for a "flying monster".  He's surprised that there's no visible roof, and I tell him that the Manta was made before the future Ice Age.  One advantage the Manta has over other items is that it does not count toward the 8 Possession limit.


CHOICE #27 is a Diamond codeword check.  I have it because I traveled with Kyle Boche at the beginning.  CHOICE #28 asks me to either tell Kyle Boche about the vehicle, or delete the Diamond codeword and refuse to let him know about my car.


Kyle Boche becomes more suspicious when I tell him about the Manta.  "This is a startling and welcome piece of luck!  Now that we have a Manta, success in our venture is virtually assured".  The use of the pronoun "our" is not lost on the Scientist.  Kyle claims we'll share the Heart of Volent's power, but I do not trust him at all.  We can fly to Du-En without having to take the Kahira ferry.  The next page number is 159, the same as if I had rejected the Diamond codeword.


"The sea skims by beneath, grey as gunmetal and churning with chunks of ice.  The sky resembles the underside of a giant fungus.  Hours pass.  As you approach the estuary of the Isis, a haze of mist looms up to blanket the coastline, formed where the river flows into the freezing depths of the Inland Sea".


Apparently the Nile is named after an Egyptian goddess now.  Guess the future Ice Age Egyptians studied mythology. 


"Startled fishermen look up in fright as you go screeching only metres above their heads.  You laugh.  To them your vehicle must look like some kind of demonic flying fish".


CHOICE #28 is to either stop in Kahira, travel to the pyramids of Giza, or ignore Egypt and fly to Du-En.  Gaia told me to visit Gilgamesh in Giza and gave me the Humbaba codeword, so now's the time to use it.


"Veering west, you steer towards the pyramids of Giza where they stand outlined against the feeble afterglow of sunset.  The Sphinx lies huddled with banks of snow along its stone flanks, its face ravaged by frostbite".


We climb a ramp leading up to a steel door 2/3 of the way to the top of the Great Pyramid.  "A symbol is etched into the metal.  The emblem of a long-forgotten cause, it means nothing to you".


CHOICE #30 offers several Skill and codeword checks.  I can say Humbaba, or use ROGUERY or PARADOXING if I had those abilities.  There is one option for players who don't have any of those.


Humbaba is actually a password for a keypad, not a word I need to shout "Open Sesame" style.  Once used, Humbaba is probably irrelevant, so the book asks me to remove it from my Character Sheet.


A "sinister blue glow" lights the tunnel, and a room is covered with video screens linked to defunct satellites.  An elevator more advanced than any recent model goes to the center of the Great Pyramid.


CHOICE #31 lets me descend to the research level, the military level, or to leave the Great Pyramid like a wimp.


Character Sheet
 
Scientist
 
Life Points:  9
Possessions:  Nothing
Special Items:  Manta sky-car
Money:  21 Scads
Skills:  CYBERNETICS, LORE, PILOTING, SURVIVAL
Codewords:  Diamond

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Heart of Ice Scientist Playthrough Part 3


The Research area is a great place for a player character to find.  It has more Cold-Weather Suits, Food Packs, and Medical Kits than slots in my Possessions.  I think I'll grab 2 Cold-Weather Suits, 3 Food Packs, and 3 Medical Kits.  The Scientist can always drop items if needed.


CHOICE #32 checks if I activated Little Gaia.  I did not.


The laboratory was evacuated quickly, as hinted by an empty coffee cup.  Much of the equipment is only half-finished.  There's a tempting red button that always means doom in cartoons.


CHOICE #33 is to either try to contact Gaia, turn on the "metal box", search the laboratory, descend to the military level, or abandon the Great Pyramid.  When I try to talk to Gaia again, CHOICE #34 is a CYBERNETICS check.


Unfortunately, Gaia is insane right now, and is planning to cause a nuclear meltdown inside the base.  "There are times for subtlety, but this isn't one of them.  You rip out the external cables, physically breaking the link to Gaia."


I've probably saved Kahira from destruction, but there's no choice but to leave the Great Pyramid before the elevator loses power and traps me.  I like that contacting Gaia is a trap here, because it fits her characterization as a mad AI. 


CHOICE #34 is a Manta car check.  Once I pass it, we fly over the Ice Wastes of the Sahara.  "The wind shrieks across the land without respite, driving swathes of powdery snow that has carved strange shapes from the surrounding cliffs.  You see few signs of life.  This is one of the most desolate regions of Earth."


The black walls of Du-En are on the horizon.  CHOICE #35 is a Diamond codeword check, and the book orders me to delete it after its final use.


Once we reach the lost city, we find most of the streets buried under snow.  As for the buildings, "their vast scale and pitiless geometric decoration make them seem out of proportion to the human soul.  You find them tyrannical and depressing".


How would geometric decorations be "pitiless", I wonder?


A campfire indicates other treasure hunters got here before us.  We introduce ourselves as they burn Du-En furniture and artwork in their campfire.


"As you get closer you see antique furniture and splintered doors crackling in the flames:  plunder from the once great city of Du-En, lost art treasures beyond price.  In this desolate place, their only value is the warmth they give".


Janus Gaunt is the first member of the group.  He has xoms with him, which are "renanimated cadavers".  I didn't know necromancy was possible in this setting.


One "wizened old man with no legs who comes drifting through the air like a ghost", is a renowned psychic from Bezant named Baron Sirasis.  A woman with "long feline strides" is Thadra Bey of al-Lat.  Commander Chaim Golgoth confirms that the United States still exists in 2300.  Two "strapping bronzed ladies" nearby are Gargan XIII and Gargan XIV, the only survivors of a larger group of clone super soldiers.  We haven't met Vajra Singh yet, but he'll probably show up.


CHOICE #37 is a Scythe codeword check.  I don't have that.


Character Sheet
 
Scientist
 
Life Points:  9
Possessions:  2 Cold-Weather Suits, 3 Food Packs, 3 Medical Kits
Special Items:  Manta sky-car
Money:  21 Scads
Skills:  CYBERNETICS, LORE, PILOTING, SURVIVAL
Codewords:  None

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I read the complete prologue on Amazon and I find it hilarious that

"The system's designer began programming an antivirus, but died before his work was complete."

Too bad that there was only a single guy who knew how the computer system controlling the global weather acually worked...

I missed this comment at first.  You're sneaky when you post, Gustaran!  


Maybe Gaia's designer was extremely paranoid, and didn't want other people to know all the supercomputers' secrets, given she was already infected once by a hostile force?