Za'sa pockets the bag of coins, smiles, rummages through his desk and pulls out a faded scroll. He unfurls it to reveal a map, of what seems to be a tomb (surprise, surprise).
"This a map of the tomb of Lord Fa Ho-Luo, a minor noble, as far as nobles go. I received it from an interested party that wishes a certain artifact, believed to be buried with him, to be "retrieved". A comb, I think it was-" He leafs through his notebook. "-Yup, a comb...leave it to the nobles...anyway, the details are unimportant. What you need to know is that the tomb is in the Valley of the Dead-" Za'sa stops, gauging your reaction. Valley of the Dead, the name brings a faint sourness to your mouth-the taste of magic- and you've definitely heard it before... "-And this map was given with signed permission, from an ancestor of Lady Chao-mo, who was Fa Ho-Luo's mother, to descrecra-*ahem*-explore-the tomb." Za'sa flips the map over and shows a faded calligraphic signature. He rolls up the scroll before you get a chance to look at the map or the signature, and hands it to you.
"My client only wants the comb; in return, you may take whatever else you find in the tomb with full permission." You take the scroll. Valley of the Dead! Of course, you've heard of it! Everyone has. The site of the duel between Abolar the Water Bearer and Seneope the Starter, a duel so concentrated in magic that it permanently scarred reality. Za'sa pushes you out of his office before you can get out another word. Then he locks his door.
Here's what you already know about the Valley of the Dead (free information because of high Scholar):
0. It was created by a duel between Abolar, the God of Fishermen, and Seneope, the First User [of Magic] (they were annihilated by the ensuing reality whiplash)
1. Over 1000 generations of Nobles, Kings, Queens, Concubines, Merchants, Warriors, Scholars etc. are buried there. It is the largest cemetery in the world.
2. There is only one entrance: a staircase that leads directly down into the depths
3. For every person buried (i.e thrown down the staircase along with all their possessions) a personalized tomb is created by the distorted reality and the body is stored appropriately
4. A map is then "revealed" to a "Seeing-Cartographer" through a dream, who then writes the map down and sells it to the ancestor of the tomb (i.e highest bidder)
5. Without this map, the Valley is an endless, ever-shifting, random sequence of rooms; a collection of chaos
6. With the map, the Valley changes itself to match the contents of the map (more-or-less; the Valley is fickle)
7. Anyone that steals from a tomb (even with a map) without permission from an ancestor, is cursed (or so its believed)
8. Anything can happen in the Valley; magic is so concentrated there that reality is less strict (+1 to max RT)
In any case, you have the map and you have a job:
"Retrieve" the comb of Lord Fa Ho-Luo (and whatever else you can find) from the Valley of the Dead
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Topic: Tomb Raiders: The Forum Game (Need Puzzle-Solvers!) (Read 28222 times)