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You trudge through the loose red sand, your faces covered to protect them from the dust and the blazing heat. The landscape is stark and desolate; all that seems to thrive here is the wire-hard grass that scratches your boots and leggings. You soon come across a dried river bed that leads to a cave in the orange sandstone hillside. A wooden plaque is nailed by the mouth of the cave, but you are unable to understand the strange words painted on its sun-blistered surface.

If you wish to investigate the cave, turn to 235.

If you wish to press on towards Ikaresh, turn to 272.

Text copyright © 1985 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1985 Gary Chalk.