RomanQuest Read online

  You release his elbow, stunned. This is the very day Vesuvius is due to erupt, burying Pompey forever!

  Oh wow, out of the frying pan of the Roman Games into the fire of a volcanic eruption! What sort of solo adventure author would do this to you? But it’s happened now and unless you want to spend the rest of this adventure digging your way out of a lava flow at 13, you’d better get out of here fast. But do you get out by leaving the city or by finding the Sibyl? You’ve got your map. The choice is yours, but better make the right one before the whole thing blows up in your face.

  POMPEII

  Go to...

  16 24 75 143 125 95 150 115 45 6 85 35 65 156 135 53

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  151

  Above the door of this tasteful, shrine-like building, are two words:

  Parens Patriae

  “The Father of the Nation,” murmurs your Mercury Phone with a catch in its voice.

  Beside the door squats an old man with cataract in both eyes. He looks up at the sound of your approach. “Take your hat off if you’re wearing one,” he says.

  “What is this place?” you ask him.

  “It’s the tomb of the Divine Augustus,” he tells you soberly.

  Do you really want to waste time visiting some mouldy old grave? You can always return to 25 right now and select another destination. But if you really must see where the Emperor Augustus was buried, turn to 129.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  152

  For a moment it seems you’ve stepped outside of time. The crowd freezes. All sound stops. Caligula’s eyes widen. “I remember you!” he exclaims.

  Maybe you can make a run for it. Try an Absolutely Anything Roll. If it kills you, go to 13. If it succeeds you can pick another destination from your tourist map at 25. If it fails, you can meet your fate at 134.

  Alternatively, of course, you can try to brazen it out at 26.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  153

  These gardens are really delightful, beautifully laid out and immaculately kept, while beyond them you can see an extensive sweep of vineyards. But as you move onto the path, you can hear the approach of marching feet and in a moment a contingent of soldiers comes into view.

  Their Centurion steps forward smartly and salutes.

  “Beg pardon,” he says politely, “but no-one leaves the villa without an Emperor’s Pass. “

  If you have one, you can head for Rome at 25. If you haven’t (or even if you have but don’t want to use it yet) you can either return to 83 or go around the side of the villa to explore an odd little annex room at 4.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  154

  “Well, Janus, who’s your little friend?” asks Caligula. “No, don’t tell me - I really don’t want to know. One of your gambling cronies, no doubt, since I only ever seem to meet you giving guided tours of my palace - my palace, do you hear me? - to pay off your stupid debts. Well, you know what happens to anyone you bring here ...”

  “No, Caesar, please no! Not that! Please not that! Anything but that!”

  “What happens to anyone he brings here?” you ask with sudden interest.

  “Please, Caesar, no!”

  Caligula smiles at you and his eyes dance with a lunatic light. “What happens is that they face the Quiz of Death, a small amusement I invented one wet afternoon. The rules are simple. I ask you general knowledge questions and if you give the wrong answer I have you executed in the most horrible way I can think of. Fun, eh?”

  “Caesar, this young person doesn’t deserve the Quiz of Death!” Janus pleads.

  Caligula ignores him. “Your first question is this,” he tells you. “Was the name of Julius Caesar’s adopted son Anthony or Octavian?”

  What’s general knowledge to Caligula is Roman history to you and me. But if you can’t come up with the right answers, you’re as dead as bell-bottom pyjamas. If you think Caesar’s adopted son was called Anthony, turn to 133 If you think he was Octavian, turn to 106.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  155

  You look up, panting from the exertion of the fight. A small crowd has gathered around you.

  “Here,” says one of the men, “you can’t do that. I mean, you can’t just go around hacking up Roman citizens - this is a law-abiding city.”

  But the crowd gives way in panic as you push your way through. With a huge feeling of relief you skip towards the gate and onto the road out of town.

  As you do so, there is a terrifying roar as the peak of Vesuvius splits open and a black pine-shaped cloud erupts from the volcano showering massive red-hot cinders and great globules of molten lava.

  “Arrrgh!” you howl as a great globule of molten lava lands directly on your head, burning off most of your face and eating its way through the bone of your skull.

  After which it becomes quite difficult for you to continue your adventure. Go to 13.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  156

  The crowds here are enormous and a look round tells you why. This is the forum area of the city, a wide triangular space which features not only the administrative buildings, but an endless array of market stalls and shops of all descriptions. It’s the political and commercial heart of Pompeii.

  And as such you could spend several weeks exploring here, if only you had time. But you don’t, so get back to your map at 150 and select another destination.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  157

  “Right again!” exclaims Caligula. “But can you keep this up? Here’s a really, really difficult one: Where was I born? Was it Herculaneum? Was it Antium? Was it Alexandria? Was it Capri? Or was it Rome? Believe me, if you get this wrong I shall have an extra specially painful death prepared for you!”

  Are you going to survive this? If you think it was Herculaneum, turn to 137 If you think it was Antium, turn to 127 . If you think it was Alexandria, turn to 119. If you think it was Capri, turn to 109 If you think it was Rome, turn to 86.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  158

  You draw yourself up to your full height.

  “No, sir, I am not,” you tell him with great dignity. “I apologise for intruding into your bedroom, but the fact is I am a young person from almost two thousand years in the future who was on holiday in your beautiful country when I was approached by a Sibyl who wished me to change the course of Roman history by stopping the birth of one of your Emperors who would otherwise appear in the future from your present viewpoint, but who was also part of the past from my viewpoint.” You draw a deep breath and continue, “To that end, the Sibyl asked Jupiter - the god, not the planet although you would probably have assumed that already - to transport me back in time to the relevant point in Roman history but he made a botch of it and dumped me in Pompeii in the middle of the games, would you believe, and on exactly the day the volcano was scheduled to erupt, although you wouldn’t know about that since it’s still some time in your future, but I managed to escape and find the Sibyl who renegotiated with Jupiter - the god, not the planet - and even though he seemed a bit cross because I called him stupid, here I am!” You give him the benefit of your most ingratiating smile.

  “You’re nuts,” he says and pulls a sword from under the covers.

  You stare at him in astonishment wondering what sort of man keeps a sword in his bed.

  The sort who worries about people creeping up on him while he’s sleeping, I expect., and now he’s hurtling forward to make sure you never do it again.. He has 40 Life Points and that sword does +5 damage, but the good news is he’s still sleepy so you’ll automatically get in t
he first blow. You may only want to incapacitate him in which case you should know that he will fall down unconscious if you can get his Life Points below 10, allowing you to leave this room by the western door marked XXII or the eastern door marked VIII. He, on the other hand, has no interest in incapacitating you whatsoever and will do his level best to ensure you leave this room feet first for 13.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  159

  In the main baths (according to your Brief Guide) the Romans ended their ablutions by passing through two rooms known as a tepidarium and a frigidarium. As you’d guess from the names, the tepidarium was comfortably warm, while the frigidarium was polar bear territory. But here in the villa, the two rooms are combined. The southern half of the chamber is heated by dry air blowing from ducts in the floor and walls, while the northern portion is mainly taken up by a swimming pool that looks about as inviting as a melting iceberg.

  You are about to return the way you came through the door marked CXXXXI when you notice a second door in the northernmost segment of the western wall. Unfortunately, the only way of reaching it is via an icy plunge into that swimming pool.

  If you want to risk your death of cold in the pool, you can take the plunge at 11. If you want to show a bit of sense, you’ll go back the way you came through the door marked CXXXXI.

  Please select an option from the previous page.

  160

  The sign definitely said gelati, but there’s not an ice-cream parlour in sight.

  You’re standing by a fence that runs the whole way round a still, deep lake. The summer air is filled with the hoarse sounds of tiny bullfrogs, each one making more noise than you would ever have believed possible.

  And across the broad expanse of water is something that’s even taken your mind off the high heat of this Italian summer. Leaning out to peer into the lake is a near-naked giant.

  He is broad shouldered, heavily muscled and bearded. Even though he is kneeling by the water’s edge his bowed head towers above the tallest of the tall trees in the copse around him.

  Without a doubt this must be the Colossus of the Apennines, the very statue your parents dragged you into this park to see. They’re still wandering about trying to find it and now you’ve practically tripped over it while looking for an ice-cream stand.

  “It’s actually a fountain, but I’m afraid they’re having trouble with the plumbing,” says a quiet voice behind you. You turn to find yourself looking into the mild blue eyes of an elderly scholarly-looking gentleman. He shrugs. “But sic friatur crustum dulce, as they used to say round here.”

  The phrase sounds oddly familiar. “What’s that mean?” you ask him.

  “It’s Latin for That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” he smiles.

  You watch him as he walks away.

  Finis

  Make Your Choice

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  The End

  Thank you for playing! If you enjoyed this book, look out for more Herbie Brennan adventure books from Andrews UK.