327

Finally the lock surrenders to your blows and the heavy portal creaks ajar. Immediately you are greeted by a blast of frozen air as you push open the door and step out onto a viewing platform which is fixed to the outer metallic skin of this huge alien submarine. Away to your right you can see a line of ice-boats at anchor at the lake’s edge, and to your left you notice a column of skeletal warriors. These are being led by a black-robed Cabalah, marching in mechanical fashion along the jetty towards the mouth of a tunnel which leads out of the vast ice cavern. Your keen Kai senses tell you that you have arrived in Ixia, and that the distant tunnel leads to the surface.

You commit the position of the ice-boats to memory; if your mission is successful, you will be needing some means by which you can escape from Ixia. Then you carefully observe the area immediately surrounding the submarine, and notice that there are only two ways by which you can reach the distant tunnel—by the adjacent jetty, or by entering the icy waters of the lake and swimming to the shore.

If you wish to attempt to reach the tunnel via the jetty, turn to 30.

If you choose to attempt to reach the tunnel entrance by swimming from the submarine to the shore, turn instead to 161.