### 261

You wake and raise your body slowly. Your head is pounding, and your vision is blurred. Realization of your terrible plight comes flooding back, and you look around you. In the corner sits a hunched and groaning figure, dressed in furs and gaudy robes now stained with dirt. He sits with his hands clasped over his pot belly. 'Welcome,' he says, sardonically.

You talk to the little man and he tells you about himself. His name is Shan Li, a trader familiar with all parts of the Shadakine Empire and many strange lands beyond. He is a harmless merchant, arrested a few hours ago while in the middle of a drunken reverie in an establishment called the Inn of the Laughing Moon, a popular watering hole for travellers and strangers to the Port of Suhn.

Turn to 291.

Concept copyright © 1985 Joe Dever and Gary Chalk.
Text copyright © 1985 Ian Page.