110

Standing before you is a squat, malformed creature. Its features are grotesque and distorted; its back is bent at an impossible angle; its limbs twist like a gnarled tree. The eyes stare out of a knuckled face at odd angles above a raw gash of a mouth that snarls and spits as you approach. The creature crouches low and then leaps at you. You raise your Staff in readiness but the attack does not materialize: the creature has disappeared! The creature is nowhere to be seen. You look at Tanith, a question half-formed on your lips.

‘Some creature of Shasarak’s,’ she states coolly. ‘Demons rule this land now, though once it was a place of untamed beauty. At his command it has become a realm of fear.’

You wonder if the creature has gone to warn others of its kind, or whether it simply fled in fear. Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: you must keep moving. You still have not located any food or water, and evening is drawing in.

If you wish to go east, turn to 14.

If you wish to go south, turn to 36.