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Two dwarves clamber on to the platform and hurry to their young captain's side. One flicks open a red velvet satchel strapped to his barrel-like chest, and removes a glass vial and a clean linen bandage. They attend to the wound, and, as his strength returns, Banedon listens intently to your account of the terrifying events that have led up to this meeting. As you conclude your woeful tale, Banedon speaks, his voice full of grim determination.

'The future of Sommerlund rests in our hands, Lone Wolf. We must stop Darklord Haakon from destroying the Book of the Magnakai. I have heard tell of the Tomb of the Majhan from the nomads of the Dry Main. They say it is a terrible place, a place of horror and death--for what little there is left to die there. It lies beyond the Dahir, near the oasis of Bal-loftan. That is all I know, for the Majhan hid their tombs well and what few traces remained have long since disappeared beneath the shifting sands of the Dry Main.'

Your face conveys the disappointment you feel upon hearing these words.

'However, all is not lost,' says Banedon, undaunted. 'There is a man who can guide us there. His name is Tipasa Edarouk--'Tipasa the Wanderer'. It is he who we must seek, for he is the only man who has ever entered the Tomb of the Majhan and lived to tell the tale.'

Turn to 302.

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