Our last foray into the world of the Lone Wolf didn't end all that well -- we got kilt. Kilt dead.
But never fear! If a life of geeky comic book nerdery has taught us anything, it's that no one has to stay dead forever. With that spirit, today I kick off Book 2 of the Lone Wolf, "Fire on the Water", courtesy of Project Aon! It's a fantastic site dedicated to preserving and sharing the legacy of "Choose Your Own Adventure" style books, and will be the source of our new foray.
For the sake of continuity, we'll say that when our little wee Kai Lord in training seemed to die, in fact he was snatched into an alternate dimension where Spider-Man has another new costume he actually lived to complete the quest to find the king and warn him of impending danger, whereupon he was given a new quest:
You enter the Chamber of State, a magnificent hall decorated lavishly in white and gold. The King and his closest advisers are studying a large map spread upon a marble plinth in the centre of the chamber. Their faces are lined with worry and concentration. A silence fills the hall as you tell of the death of your kinsmen and of your perilous journey to the citadel. As you finish your story, the King approaches and takes your right hand in his.
‘Lone Wolf, you have selfless courage: the quality of a true Kai Lord. Your journey here has been one of great peril and although your news comes as a grievous blow, the spirit of your determination is like a beacon of hope to us all in this dark hour. You have brought great honour to the memory of your Masters, and for that we praise you.’
You receive the praise and heartfelt thanks of the entire hall—an honour that brings a certain redness to your young face. The King raises his hand and all the voices cease.
‘You have done all that Sommerlund could have asked of a loyal son, but she is greatly in need of you still. The Darklords are powerful once more and their ambition knows no bounds. Our only hope lies within Durenor with the power that once defeated the Darklords an age ago. Lone Wolf, you are the last of the Kai—you have the skills. Will you journey to Durenor and return with the Sommerswerd, the sword of the sun? Only with that gift of the gods may we crush this evil and save our land.’
Huzzah! Although I can only think that for the King to say we had "Selfless courage", he must not have actually seen any of our actions leading up to our resurrection. Phew!
Naturally we'll accept the new quest, which happily is laid out for us in Book 2. I hate it when I have to try and save the world with no guidebook.
You can find the recap and setup for our story here, but in a nutshell:
The King has given you the Seal of Hammerdal. Your quest is to travel to Durenor to fetch the Sommerswerd back. But meanwhile the enemy have broken through the outer defences to the capital and are preparing to besiege the city wall. As Captain D'Val of the King's Guard leads you to the Royal Armoury to equip you for your mission, the King's words keep coming back to you:
'Forty days, Lone Wolf. We have strength to stand against them for only forty days.'
Before we can begin, we get to choose a new Kai Discipline! You can find our "character sheet" here, but for easy reference our current Disciplines are:
- Camouflage
- Sixth Sense
- Weaponskill (spear, +2 CS when using)
- Mind Blast (+2 Combat Skill)
- Animal Kinship
The full list of Kai Disciplines and their writeups is here. Choose carefully, young Padawan!
Luckily the King is generous in terms of material support as well, and we can choose two of the following items (so select two from the list):
Looking over our list, my personal choice would be the two Meals and the chainmail waistcoat. Or the shield. Or the healing potion. Good thing I'm not in charge of inventory! We do currently have a Spear and an Axe, but if we choose other weapons we can swap the new ones out for one or both of the old ones. Of course it would be foolish to discard our Spear since that's our Weaponskill, and it probably doesn't make much sense to choose a different weapon if we don't also choose that Weaponskill. But then again, random foolishness is what makes the Internet hum!
OK, now the onus is on you to make your choices and see where we begin the new quest. If you want to argue for a certain Discipline or equipment choices, by all means fire away in the comments!
