GreekQuest Read online

  Title Page

  GREEKQUEST

  by

  Herbie Brennan

  Publisher Information

  Published in 2011 by

  Andrews UK Limited

  www.andrewsuk.com

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual events.

  Copyright © Herbie Brennan

  The right of Herbie Brennan to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Introduction

  Who’d have thought a package holiday in Greece with your parents could have landed you in so much trouble?

  Who’d have thought there were any gods left on Mount Olympus, let alone a crabby old geezer like Zeus.

  And who’d have thought he would pick you for the most dangerous, most terrifying, most brain-destroying adventure in the history of the universe?

  In this unique game-book you can adventure through the semi-mythic world of Ancient Greece, sampling the marvels of the birthplace of democracy as you attempt to do the job that Zeus has picked for you.

  Can you survive the rigors of Sparta, the toughest city state the world has ever known?

  Can you keep your head while you consult the Oracle at Delphi and listen to the dreadful fate she has in store for you?

  Have you the wits and strength to battle to the very end of this astonishing ...

  Greek Quest

  Important: Read This First

  You can’t just read this book - you have to live it.

  To do that, you’ll need pen and paper and a couple of dice. You’ll also need to learn the game play system.

  Of course, you may have done that already. You may have played another of the books in this series. In which case you’ll know exactly what to do.

  But if this is your first book, turn now to the section headed GAME PLAY SYSTEM.

  Otherwise, you can turn to 1 and get straight on with your adventure...

  Game Play System

  Here’s what you’ll need to survive this book.

  Life Points

  To get your starting Life Points, roll one of your dice and multiply the result by ten. This will give you a Life Point figure between 10 and 60. You’re allowed to do this three times and pick the best score out of the three.

  Fights

  First attack: In any combat situation, it’s important to find out who gets in the first attack. Roll one of your dice. Score 4, 5 or 6 and the first attack is yours. Score 1, 2 or 3 and your opponent gets to go first.

  Striking blows: Roll both dice to strike a blow or use a weapon. Score 2, 3 or 4 and it counts as a miss. Anything else is a hit and the score comes off your opponent’s Life Points. Throw the dice for your opponent in exactly the same way. Any hits scored by him come off your Life Points.

  Weapons: If you (or your opponent) are using a weapon, it adds extra damage to a successful hit. The amount of extra damage is given with the weapon. For example, if you find a pistol (+5), it means each time you successfully shoot somebody with it, you add 5 to the damage shown by the dice.

  Ammunition: Firearms are useless without ammo. You’ll be told when you find a weapon how much ammo it contains. Once you run out of ammo, you score no extra damage when using a firearm.

  Healing

  Medicine: You can find all sorts of medicine in these adventures. Each time you do, using it will restore Life Points. You’ll be told how to calculate the number of restored Life Points with each medical pack.

  Rest: If you can’t find medicine when you need it, you can always take a chance on resting. You can rest any time and as often as you like. To do so, throw one of your dice. Score 5 or 6 and you can add that number to your Life Points. But if you score 3 or 4 you have to deduct that number from your Life Points because you were attacked in your sleep. Score 1 or 2 and you rested without being attacked, but were too nervous to restore any Life Points.

  Death

  When your Life Points come down to zero, you’re dead and have to start the adventure again from the beginning. Same applies to any opponent you’re fighting.

  Money

  Keep a careful note of any money you may earn/win/find/purloin during your adventure. It could be useful for buying things or (occasionally) bribery.

  Experience

  Every time you win a fight (and in a few other special circumstances as well) you earn yourself one Experience Point. Keep careful note of the total, because 10 Experience Points gives you a Special Life Point. Special Life Points are added to your total just like ordinary Life Points and are lost in fights just like ordinary Life Points. But there are some important differences between Special Life Points and ordinary Life Points.

  If you’re killed during an adventure, you can add all your Special Life Points to your score when you’re rolling up your Life Points for the next try.

  You can add Special Life Points even if you score the absolute maximum of 60 when you’re rolling your Life Points. So if you have earned 6 Special Life Points and score 60 on your Life Point roll, your final Life Points will be 66.

  You can carry Special Life Points with you into any other book in this series and add them in when you’re rolling up your Life Points for each adventure.

  Absolutely Anything Roll

  From time to time during your adventure, you might want to try to do something weird or spectacular. To find out the result, use the Absolutely Anything Roll. Throw both dice.

  •Score 2 and you failed to do what you tried to do and killed yourself in the attempt.

  •Score 3, 4 or 5 and you failed to do what you tried to do and can’t try again.

  •Score 6,7, 8 or 9 and you failed to do what you tried to do but can try just one more time.

  •Score 10, 11 or 12 and you succeed.

  Use The Links!

  Most e-reading devices will let you use the interactive links in each section to take you to your destination.

  1

  Your tour guide waves a hand at the threatening sky. “No need to worry, friends,” she says confidently. “According to Homer, there are never any storms on Mount Olympus.”

  But she must be talking about Homer Simpson because the thunder and the wind and rain start up at once.

  “Stay together!” screams your guide desperately as everybody races for shelter in different directions.

  You sensibly ignore her and head towards a rocky overhang that should provide some cover. But the rain’s so heavy you somehow miss your way because by the time you should have reached it you’re still running, soaked to the skin, half blinded by the downpour and with not the slightest idea where you’re going.

  Then, as abruptly as it started, the storm stops. The clouds break up and the sun comes out with such violence that your clothes begin to steam. You look around to find yourself in a small clearing completely surrounded by twenty foot high cliffs. And though you just ran in here, there doesn’t seem to be any way out.

  You turn full circle looking for an exit, then realise with a violent start there’s a weird old guy with a long grey beard sitting on a rock no more than a few feet distant from you. He’s wearing an o
utfit - sandals, laurel wreath headdress and a long white linen tunic - that makes him look as if he just escaped from the local funny farm. But at least he might point you the way out of here.

  “Do you speak English?” you ask him cautiously since your Greek is non-existent.

  He raises one grey eyebrow. “English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, modern Greek, ancient Greek, Latin, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu and a word or two of Strine. Among others.”

  “English will do,” you tell him quickly. “I was wondering if you could show me the way out from all these cliffs. I’m with a package tour, you see, visiting your wonderful Greek countryside. I’m afraid I’ve got in here by mistake.”

  “No you haven’t,” says the weird old guy. “You’re here because I brought you here: no mistake at all.” He stands up and offers you his hand. “Name’s Zeus,” he says. “I want you to do a little job for me.”

  Zeus? The god Zeus, otherwise known as the Greek version of Napoleon in every lunatic asylum from here to Athens? This guy’s obviously three lamb chops short of a musaka. But what are you going to do about it? You might try to humour him at 159 Or just ignore him and find your own way out at 110 Or if you’re as big a fruit-cake as he is, you might even take up his offer of employment at 55

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  2

  “Act your age, kid,” you tell the young aggro merchant and turn to walk away.

  “Just where do you think you’re going?” asks an adult voice.

  You turn to find yourself looking into the cold eyes of a hard-faced man. “Who are you?” you demand.

  “I’m the paidonomos,” he says. “It’s my job to train Spartan children from the age of seven until they leave the barracks as fully-grown and usually decently married men. And while I can tell from your accent you’re some sort of barbarian, you mustn’t think you can ignore this young man’s challenge.”

  “You mean you want me to fight with this little kid?” you ask incredulously.

  “I certainly do,” says the paidonomos. “Nobody backs off from a fight in Sparta.”

  “Not even a ba-ba-barbarian!” jeers your little enemy rudely.

  “But I can’t fight somebody that young!” you protest.

  “Fight him or fight me!” snaps the paidonomos.

  What a choice! The paidonomos looks like he could eat you sprinkled with a pint of milk for breakfast, which is probably what he’ll do if you elect to fight him at 117. Otherwise you’re going to have to fight the child at 158.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  3

  “Wrong!” shouts the huge man, casually hurling you all the way to 61.

  So pick yourself up, dust yourself off and select another destination from your 61 map.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  4

  “There you are,” you say, laying the statue at the feet of the statue. “A statuesque goddess,” you remark, nodding towards the statue of Aphrodite.

  “Goddess of love and beauty,” Zeus remarks. “I suppose that’s why I’ve always had a bit of a fancy for her. Not a word to Hera about that, of course.”

  “My lips are zipped,” you tell him, making a zipping gesture across your mouth. Then you prove they aren’t by adding, “I’m ready for my mission now.”

  “Maybe you are and maybe you aren’t,” sniffs Zeus. “That’s up to the Oracle to decide.”

  “You blink. “Oracle?”

  “The Oracle at Delphi!” Zeus exclaims as if you were some sort of half-idiot. “You must ask her if you are indeed ready and also what will be the outcome.”

  “But I don’t know how to get to Delphi!” you wail.

  “Oh, can’t you figure out anything for yourself!” snaps Zeus.

  He also snaps his great stone fingers, an action that covers you in mortar dust and chippings.

  And also sends you directly to 142.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  5

  You walk angrily from the temple, trip on the offering left by a pilgrim, fall on your head, crack open your skull and die slowly as your brains ooze out.

  Go to 13.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  6

  He stares up at you out of one half-closed eye. “What was that you wanted to know?” he asks breathlessly.

  “Just the fastest route to Sparta city,” you tell him.

  He points down to the five nestling villages. “That’s it,” he says.

  “But that’s not a city!” you protest.

  “Best we can do for one,” he tells you bluntly. Then, reaching into his tunic, he pulls out a scrap of paper. “You’re going to need this when you get there. I can tell from your accent you’re a barbarian, even if you do fight well.”

  You open up the paper to discover it’s a map.

  There’s lucky! Now get down to that excuse for a city at 61 and pick a destination from your map.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  7

  You arrive in Athens on the afternoon of the following day, only to discover Darius has established a beachhead of troops on the Plain of Marathon and General Miltiades had moved his own men out of the city to meet them. So it’s another 26 mile trot to get to the scene of the action.

  By the time you reach the scene of the impending battle, you’re beginning to wish you hadn’t bothered. Your feet are killing you. Every muscle in your body aches and you’ve just realised you don’t care whether the Greeks or the Persians win.

  But a deal is a deal and you haven’t come all this way just to toddle back again, so when General Miltiades marches across, you straighten your back and snap to attention.

  “The Spartans aren’t too keen to help us,” Pheidippides tells the General, “but this young barbarian has agreed to advise on military tactics.”

  The General, a thick-set man with a permanent scowl on his face, looks you up and down. “And what would a young barbarian know about military tactics anyway?” he asks scornfully.

  It’s a fair question, but in point of fact you know a good deal more about the military tactics of this particular forthcoming battle than anybody else here, having looked it up in your Brief Guide to Ancient Greece. Under ‘Battle of Marathon’ you’ve not only discovered that General Miltiades managed to route the vastly superior Persian forces, but also found out how he did it.

  “I know this much,” you tell him confidently. “If you put your strongest soldiers on the wings to the right and left of your army and then charge at a run instead of the traditional slow phalanx march, the chances are you’ll win the day with very few casualties.”

  The General’s eyes narrow. “You may have something there, Barbarian,” he murmurs thoughtfully. “If we charge at a run, we have the element of surprise. With any luck, we could be inside the minimum range of the Persian archers before they’re a chance to shoot. And while we keep the Persian centre occupied, our wings might just make a breakthrough! By Zeus, I think I’ll try it! You and Pheidippides take yourselves out of harm’s way, Barbarian. You both look far too knackered to help in the fighting, so you can watch while we win the war!”

  With which he turns on his heel and stalks off shouting orders to his troops.

  Gratefully you take up his offer of a rest and sink down on a grassy hillock to watch as Miltiades puts your plan into action. Just as the Brief History predicted, the Athenians charge the huge Persian army with such speed that the Persian archers have no time to use their bows.

  Close in, the superior melee weapons and armour of the Athenians wreck havoc with the Persian forces and even though superior numbers eventually pushes the Greeks back at the centre, the two Athenian wings eventually make a
breakthrough.

  To your delight, the Persians panic and in minutes they’re running for their lives.

  General Miltiades strolls across, his scowl now replaced by a wide grin. “Congratulations!” he calls heartily to you. “Your plan worked to perfection! Please accept this Sacrifice Cup as a token of my admiration and gratitude.” With which he hands you an attractive little goblet set with semi-precious stones.

  You’re still admiring this unexpected gift when a part of your mind registers that the General is saying to Pheidippides, “Now you’ve had a little rest, you wouldn’t pop over to Athens and tell them we’ve won, would you, dear boy?”

  “No, wait!” you call in sudden panic. But it’s too late. Pheidippides has jumped up and is already racing away across the plain.

  “What’s wrong?” asks the General.

  You subside. “Nothing,” you tell him. “I just wanted to say good-bye.”

  “You’ll see him again if you ever visit Athens,” the General tells you cheerfully.

  But you know you won’t. According to the Brief Guide, Pheidippides runs all the way to Athens with the good news, but is so exhausted when he gets there that he drops dead after telling it. The event is commemorated even in your own time by the Marathon race held at every Olympics.