GreekQuest
to a room at the back. In one corner there’s a flight of stone steps leading downwards into a deep, dark cavern.
    â€œCome on!” shouts the Pythia. “I love this bit.”
    You follow them down the steps into a gloomy cavern. The Pythia climbs onto a tripod chair above a fissure in the rocks and begins to chew on a handful of laurel leaves.
    â€œHere, I thought laurel was poisonous!” you exclaim in sudden alarm.
    â€œProbably is,” says the priest. “I’ve often wondered what got her in this state. But you haven’t seen the worst of it.”
    Scarcely have the words left his lips than there’s a sudden eruption of volcanic smoke and fumes from the fissure at her feet.
    â€œDon’t inhale the smoke,” whispers the priest urgently.
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    But has his advice come just a little too late? Throw one die. Score 1, 2 or 3 and go to 23 . Score 4, 5 or 6 and go to 50
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    Please select an option from the previous page.

12
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    You move cautiously towards the voices. Although you still can’t see what’s going on, the words are becoming all too clear.
    â€œI am,” says one woman.
    â€œYou?” exclaims another. “When you walk, your bum looks like two boys fighting under a blanket!”
    â€œYou’re hardly one to talk,” says a third voice. “I’ve seen better-looking aardvarks than you.”
    â€œAny more talk like that and I’ll have my husband hurl a thunderbolt at you!”
    â€œThat old idiot? He couldn’t hurl his -”
    And so on in similar aggressive vein until, as you creep behind a tree quite close to the clearing, one of the women says suddenly, “All right, I’ve had enough of this nonsense! We obviously need somebody to decide the question for us. I propose we ask that good looking young shepherd we saw earlier minding his sheep.”
    â€œWhat an excellent idea!” chorus the other two.
    There is a muted groan directly behind you. “I was afraid of this!” a male voice says.
    You spin round to find yourself facing a remarkably aristocratic dark haired and handsome young man carrying a shepherd’s crook. He turns large brown eyes upon you and asks soulfully, “Any chance of giving me a hand here?”
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    You can volunteer to help this stranger at 36 , tell him to stop creeping up on innocent adventurers at 56 or just quietly ignore him and slip away west to 153 .
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    Please select an option from the previous page.

13
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    Well, the Greeks had a word for it and the word was dead. You’ve just cashed in your Greecy chips. If you had a son he’d be obliged by law to bury you. If you died in battle (which is very likely in this gamebook) the city state will pay a pension to your parents. Meanwhile you can get on with the job of resurrection. Grab your trusty dice and roll yourself another set of Life Points, not forgetting to add in any Special Life Points you may have earned. Then trudge off to Section 1 and start up the whole mess all over.
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    Try not to make the same mistake again.
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    Please select an option from the previous page.

14
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    â€œWell, I mean, I’m flattered, of course and if that’s the custom here, obviously I must become your paidonomos, although I’m sure I can never measure up, even in a small degree, to the example set by your late lamented ex-paidonomos. Yet, nonetheless ...”
    While you’re waffling on in this ludicrous manner, there’s a sudden small commotion on the edge of the crowd around you and a slimly built, lightly bearded man breaks through. He is sweating heavily, gasping like a fish out of water and looks, frankly, as if he could do with several nights sleep.
    He stands in front of you fighting for breath. Eventually he wheezes, “Are you the paidonomos?”
    â€œLooks like it,” you tell him, “although I’m new to the job.”
    â€œMy name is Pheidippides,” he

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