You stand trimuphant in the Dark Vestry, the corpse of the Ghostly Flying Death Octopus lying at your feet. As the sound of your heart pounds in your ears, the blood from it’s decapitated head drips into an ichorous black inky pool and slowly drains into a small circular hole in front of the alter. After a few seconds, a faint ghastly sucking sound begins to echo throughout the cavernous hall and the blood from the head begins to flow faster and faster into the hole, which starts to glow from deep below with an eerie greenish light. Suddenly a voice booms around you.
“You may have defeated my servant, but you will never find the Amulet of Yendor. You shall die a craven death in this pit of pain and darkness, rotting alone, unknown and unmissed. I swear it shall be so.”
Your mouth twitches as Garkon’s deathly rasping cough begins to laugh slowly and fade into silence. Suddenly, the green light begins to pulse faster and faster and you can feel the ground begin to shift beneath you as the altar cracks opens to reveal a set of stairs, winding down into a total darkness your eyes cannot penetrate. (If you are currently wearing the Helm of Elven HeatVision, turn to page 123) Otherwise, there is still the trapdoor that the fallen beast emerged from, well lit by slowly flickering torches that spit and crackle in the still deathly air.
Do you:
Take your chances with the Darkened Stairway? (Turn to page 234)
Go through the Octopus’s Doorway? (Turn to page 21)
