RomanQuest Read Free Page A

molten lava.
    â€œArrrgh!” you howl as a great globule of molten lava lands directly on your head, burning off most of your face and eating its way through the bone of your skull.
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    After which it becomes quite difficult for you to continue your adventure. Go to 13 .
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17
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    The contingent of guards marches right past you.
    You give a sigh of relief.
    The guards stop and their tribune turns and walks towards you. He stares at you grimly. “I think you may be the person I’m looking for,” he says.
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    Maybe, but is he the person you’re looking for? He’s some distance from the rest of the Praetorians now, so there’s a chance you may be able to fight your way out of this mess at 59 . But if you don’t want to risk it, you can stand up peacefully and tug your forelock at 77 .
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18
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    It’s a bedroom - and a sumptuous one at that. Whoever lives here must have travelled a lot, or at least has a taste for exotica, since the bed has leopard-skin covers. There are animal skin rugs on the floor as well, making you wonder if the owner of this villa has a deal going with the organisers of the Games. The Brief Guide mentions somewhere that literally thousands of wild animals - lions, leopards, buffalo, hippos, crocodiles and even elephants - were trapped in Africa and brought back to the capital to take part in spectacular displays. Many of these displays were hunts so the average Games killed off almost as many animals as humans and the skins had to go somewhere.
    You’re just beginning to realise what a gory business life was in Ancient Rome when the skins on the bed move and a bald-headed man sits up to stare at you sleepily.
    â€œWhat you doing in my bedroom?” he asks. “Are you the new slave?”
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    This is a more difficult question to answer than it sounds. You can pretend you’re the new slave at 46 and take your chances that you’ll be put to work when you should be looking for the wedding party. Or you can tell the truth at 158 and take the chance he won’t believe you.
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19
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    â€œWrong!” exclaims Caligula delightedly. He looks thoughtfully into the middle distance. “Drowned in a vat of steaming porridge, I think.”
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    After which painful experience, you can make your way to 13 .
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20
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    â€œOK,” you mumble, “I’ll do it. But don’t think I believe any of this is really happening.”
    To your astonishment, the sibyl produces from a pocket in her robe a gizmo that looks for all the world like one of those communicators they use in Star Trek. She flicks it open with a practised twist of her wrist, then holds it to her mouth. “Sibyl calling Jupiter. Two to beam back.”
    Instantly there is a ringing in your ears and the parkland around you begins to shimmer. You watch in amazement as the sibyl turns into a sparkling pillar that fades, then disappears completely.
    It occurs to you abruptly that maybe this really is happening after all, that maybe you really are going to be transported back to Ancient Rome, that maybe the job’s a lot more dangerous than she pretends.
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    But it occurs to you too late. Transform yourself into a shimmering pillar and fade to 60 .
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21
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    You enter the private passageway behind the Royal Box terrified that guards will set upon you at any second. And as you turn a corner, you find to your horror that you’ve walked right into the Praetorians. They begin to move towards you menacingly, but Cassius halts them with a gesture.
    â€œWell done,” he tells you. “I was afraid you wouldn’t get here.”
    â€œI almost didn’t,” you say honestly.