### 80

The flame illuminates a deep circular pit where the floor of the chamber should be. Lying at the bottom are a myriad of human skulls and bones, their surfaces strangely smooth and yellow as if corroded by some powerful acid. The faintest of sounds makes you glance over your shoulder--you are frozen with terror by the sight that meets your eyes. A huge lumbering monster fills the tunnel, over ten feet tall with thick, twisted limbs and eight-fingered hands tipped with razor-sharp talons that are poised to rip your flesh. Baleful, monstrous eyes protrude from yellow slits in its glistening head, and a long reptilian tail whips behind it.

It strikes before you can react, knocking you back into the pit. A peculiar and hideous sound fills the chamber as it claws a lever in the wall, causing a rain of yellow fluid to pour from the ceiling. As the acid eats through your cloak and sears your flesh, the last thing you hear is the hideous laughter of the Dakomyd.

Your quest and your life end here in the sewers of Tekaro.

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