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PART I:
Thunder Without Lightning
Chapter 1: that does not compute, Sea Hag!
The Sea Hag stands cackling at the cave entrance, her green, knobbly hands clasped together with evil, arthritic glee.
"You'll never find Princess Shareen now! Ha ha ha ha! The sorceress has just spirited her away to the palace. But even if you could find her, the tigress spell is irreversible! You'd have a 200 pound feline for a princess!" And with that the Sea Hag breaks into her hideous cackle.
USE SEA ROOT ON SEA HAG
That does not compute.
GIVE SEA ROOT TO SEA HAG
No way! She's a Sea Hag! She's your enemy, remember? Perhaps you should just show it to her.
SHOW SEA ROOT TO SEA HAG
You whip the small, still damp root out of your travel sack and hold it before the Sea Hag. Her squinty eyes enlarge four times their usual size, flashing a chilling amount of white from behind those dark, dense pupils.
"Where did you get that!?" she howls in agony.
"From the Poseidon King," you explain.
"Never! He wouldn't betray me!"
"Believe it or not. Either way, I have the root and unless you take me to Princess Shareen, this will be your last incarnation."
A long pause follows, filled by the hideous sound of the Sea Hag grating her teeth, crunching the salty sand in her mouth. "Alright," she begrudges. "It won't do you any good anyway. The Sorceress will destroy you effortlessly."
With that the Sea Hag disappears into her cave and emerges on her broomstick. She pulls up in front of you. "Well?" she asks snottily.
GET ON BROOM
You hop on the back of the broomstick and hold on for dear life. It's even harder to balance on than it looks. You whip across the night sky. Down below you can see the old gnome's hut as well as the fisherman's. And the Diamond farm. Within moments you are hovering in front of a crescent shaped window in Sorceress Shareef's palace tower, perched high on Shadow Mountain.
"Inside you'll find princess Shareen. Shareef is attending to the Sultan's army below in the banquet hall. Now give me my weed."
SAVE GAME
Game saved.
GIVE ROOT TO HAG
Removing the root from your satchel you hand it to the hideous green woman. Oops! That was a mistake. Having given away your only bargaining chip you've given the Sea Hag permission to exercise her dislike of you. With a nasty cackle she flips the broom upside down. Though you hang gallantly onto the end, her rotten, halitosis infested teeth begin to bite into your knuckles. You can't decide whether the breath or the pain is worse. Either way, you plummet an uncountable number of feet to your death.
You're dead. Too bad. And who says all fantasies have happy endings? You have three options. Restore, Restart, or Quit.
RESTORE
Game loaded.
GET OFF BROOM
Smartly stepping onto the window ledge, you turn and give the sea root to the hideous creature. She doesn't deserve it, but being a brave, honest and chivalrous king, your compunction gives you no choice. With a half-snort, half-cackle the witch speeds away. You turn around and hop down into the main hall.
The inside of the evil Princess Shareef's bedroom is gorgeous with marbled floors and pillars stretching to the domed ceiling, great tapestries adorning the walls, silk pillows and an enormous, beautiful, but still evil looking, bed. There are droves of treasure chests, a beauty cabinet and a library full of books. But no sign of the Princess! Just as you are swearing under your breath and planning vengeance upon the Sea Hag, you hear a squeak above you. Peering up you see a giant silver cage dangling from the roof?with a beautiful tiger pacing inside it! The Princess!
LOOK CAGE
It's too high up to reach! The princess, or at least, in tiger form, is trapped up there. There is a rope running from the top, through a pulley down behind a pillar.
LOOK PILLAR
Which one? Move closer to the one you want to examine.
LOOK PILLAR
There is a rope that comes down from the roof tied behind it.
UNTIE ROPE
It's fastened too taught.
CUT ROPE
With what?
USE CORAL TO CUT ROPE
Good idea, Mandeep! Taking the coral you got from the boy you saved you begin to saw through the thick, fibrous knot. Loosening the rope from the pillar you struggle to let the cage down slowly, though it fights to pull you off your feet.
OPEN CAGE
Unlatching the cage, you let the tigress slowly step out. Suddenly the beast is surrounded by a cloud of smoke, spinning, enveloping the tigress. And when the smoke just as suddenly disappears you are standing face to face with?Shareef! She peals with wicked laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! Foolish Mandeep! Did you really think I would make it so easy for you to rescue my sister!? You have such pitiful wits!" Shareef claps her hands two times in the air and the wall near the back fades away. Inside is a cage with another tigress?one wearing the princess' amulet!
"Princess Shareen!" you cry. Shareef laughs again. The Sorceress flashes her hands and you find yourself unable to move. "Now your beloved will watch you perish slowly as I peel away your skin layer by layer." She raises her hands far above her head and the princess/tigress lets out a fierce roar. Shareef pauses and grins?"oh, does the royal feline have something to say? Perhaps she's ready to sign the documents I've procured for her then?"
The Sorceress flashes her hands again and the tigress is transformed back into the beautiful princess. "No! You'll never get away with this!" she shouts from the cage.
"Hmmm. Too bad. I was hoping we could solve this peacefully. But you see, I've already gotten away with this. Either you sign the documents or you remain a tiger in a cage for the rest of your short life in cat-years while I do as I please." Shareef raises her arms again to cast a spell on you but only Shareen's scream stops her.
"No!! Wait. I'll sign the parchments," Shareen says reluctantly.
"No, don't!" you shout.
Sorceress Shareef throws her head backwards and laughs hard. "Such valiance!" She laughs more. "I just wanted to see if I could change your minds. But I don't think I want to have you sign the papers anymore. I'm enjoying this too much. It will be fun to tear apart Sir Mandeep here. I kind of like having you as MY inferior for once. Maybe I'll have my servants domesticate you. I deserve it after all. We were born equals, the same minds and same appearance?but because you were born but a few moments before me?that meant a lifetime of subservience and inferiority for me. Well, it's time to repair that."
"Is that still your excuse, Shareef?" asks Shareen. "You know as well as I do that you were the first born. Mother always said so until you were eight or so?and then she stopped saying it. Suddenly I was the first-born. You know why. You were not fit to be queen. Try as Mother might to control you, to 'fix' your errant ways, you continually showed your unfitness to rule. And so she decided to make me the heir. Against her decree I tried to allow us to rule peacefully together?and this is the thanks I have received."
"Ha! Go ahead and try and raise my ire! It will only make your deaths more enjoyable. No matter what the past is?I?rule?now." And with a deep, dark, sinister laugh that bubbles up from her black insides, Shareef begins to grow, in spurts, with each hearty, dark laugh. Filling the room, her laugh grows deeper and more sinister.
"Think you can face majic like this?" the thick, now-inhuman voice pours out of her mouth and spills over the floor like hot tar. She laughs again and then waves her hands. Suddenly you can move again.
"No fun to play with food that can't move," she says. "Now, run!"
SAVE GAME
Game saved.
PUT RING ON
Slipping the ring on your hand, you feel a strange sensation and then your hand explodes. Of course, in this weakened state you are no match for Shareef who slowly tears you limb from limb. Thankfully, you've already passed out by this point.
You're dead. Too bad. And who says all fantasies have happy endings? You have three options. Restore, Restart, or Quit.
RESTORE
Game loaded.
PUT RING ON MIDDLE FINGER
Pulling the dragon's ring out of your pocket you place it on your middle finger as the old gnome instructed you to do. Suddenly there is a flash of brilliant light and a bright, multi-coloured mist shoots out of your ring, latching onto the ring on Shareef's enlarged finger.
"The twin ring! Where did you get that?" she screams. "Never mind. Shareen couldn't defeat me when she had it. You'll fare no better!" She stamps twice on the ground and the floor beneath you begins to crumble. You fall and manage to catch yourself on the lip of the hole. Beneath you seems to be a portal into the depths of hell. Or, at least, boiling hot lava, which is still bad.
CHANT INCANTATION
Ooops! You've encountered an error and the game cannot continue! Trust us, we're exceedingly embarrassed about it. However, the good news is, whatever you did, you don't need to do it to finish Fantasy Quest V. Thanks - Madre Programming Staff
Crud! Crap! and double crap! This is all we need. Kendra looked at her watch. It was 3:30am. 4:00. She'd go to bed at 4:00 for sure.
Kendra rebooted the game.
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Although Game Quest is inspired by real characters, events and institutions in the computer gaming industry, the characters, events and institutions as they appear in the novel are fictional and not intended to represent those entities as they appear in real life. Any similarities to persons living or dead are coincidental and unintentional.
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All Contents Copyright ©Leopold McGinnis 2003 to present. All Rights Reserved.
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