4 Yarthmont - Well owlbear darned!

 Broneslav had four options. He could return the way he had come, or he could leave via one of the three other doors. With nothing to choose between them, he opted for the door on the north-west side of the chapel. The corridor beyond led to a dead end with a door on one side or down a side corridor. Broneslav chose to follow the side corridor first.

It led to a room filled with a noxious, bubbling liquid. In the centre of the room, on a pedestal that stood just a foot above the liquid was a chest. Broneslav looked at the liquid, considered his options, which amounted to little more than trying to leap across the room and grab the chest. He did not rate his chances, and cursed the luck that found him without anything but a bare minimum of weapons and no equipment.

"Well, that's that then," he muttered to himself as he discarded the idea of doing that. With no other immediate options, he returned to the main corridor and the door at the end. It opened into a wine cellar. Rows of casks and barrels filled the room, while bottles and jugs were stored on tables. The floor was covered in wine and splinters of barrels. The reason for this was immediately obvious. A large bear-like creature with the head of a giant owl was guzzling the wine. It responded to Broneslav's incursion by roaring drunkenly at him and staggering towards the boy, obviously intent on adding some meat to its diet.

Broneslav whipped his mace up and clubbed at the creature's face. It batted the weapon away with little effort, but Broneslav's powerful thews redirected the mace towards the creature's body and smashed it hard enough that he could hear the crushed ribs breaking even through its thick hide. Using his shield, Broneslav blocked the monster's attempts to maul him and launched a new offensive. The owlbear knocked him back and he failed to hurt it at all. Fortunately, he was able to get his shield between him and the creature once more and it's attempts to eat him were thwarted although the claw marks on his shield told the tale of what could have happened to him instead. the ferocious back and forth continued. Both combatants were bloodied and the drunken owlbear showed no signs of giving up, but then Broneslav got his mace through its defences. Stepping into its grasp, he swung upwards, breaking the creature's beak and followed up with a hard blow to the side of the head. He stepped back quickly to avoid retaliation. He need not have feared. The blow was fatal and the creature collapsed almost immediately.

Breathing hard, Broneslav grabbed one of the bottles of wine from the store and opened it. He deserved a drink after dealing with this creature. Seconds later, he spat the wine out again. It was corked and tasted foul. No wonder the owlbear was in such a terrible mood.

4 Yarthmont - Foxed and confused

 Broneslav had no clue where he was or why he was surrounded by so many bodies, nor why his shield was glowing with a bright light. However, he was a practical soul and quickly decided that there was little reason to wonder, and no treasure to be had, so he need not worry too much about it. He was whole and the gamblers next door were obviously not interested in him. As there was no obvious way out of the room he was in, he passed through the gamblers, ignoring their cries to join in and opened the door to a room with nearly a dozen dark-robed people standing in a circle. The figures all wore masks of creatures from nightmare yet none seemed aware of his presence. He had no clue what to make of this. There was nothing to guide him, so he picked the right hand door at random and strode past the scary, still people.

Pausing briefly, he listened but all he could hear was the nightmarish murmuring and occasional screams of the people in the room with him. He pushed the door open and was greeted by the sight of people in bright costumes and colourful masks dancing in silence and many with no visible partner. Some stood to the side drinking while others chatted in the Cynidicean language that he had heard much of since getting lost in the desert. The people did not react at all to his bloodstained appearance or the naked blade in his hand. There was no exit from this room other than the door he had opened so he returned to the other door and opened it.

Stepping through the door, he had a sense of deja vu, although he was certain he had never been here before. His sharp eyes spotted an unevenness in the floor. He stalked forward carefully and hopped over the uneven lump. Past it, things looked more normal and the corridor floor was flat without that one lump. Perhaps it was a trap. Who knew but best to be careful anyway? This place was uncanny and he could easily find himself in trouble before he knew it.

He followed the corridor round to where a door in the wall stood ajar. It was clearly meant to be secret, but someone had left it open. Peering through, he saw a corridor with a door at the end. He committed the door's location to memory and followed the corridor he was in further to where it turned to the right and then ended in a door a short while later.

Pushing the door open, he found himself in a huge chapel with three statues at his end of it and rows of pews disappearing into the distance. Just in front of the dais on which the statues were standing, were two fountains, one on each side of the chapel.

Two red-headed strangers stood talking near the statues. They looked up as he entered. The light from his shield had given him away.

"Oho, a brave warrior," chuckles woman, "How delightful!"

She looked him up and down lasciviously chanted a few words, and he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to do whatever she said, because she was clearly his best friend. This felt wrong just the same and he slammed his fists into the nearest statue. Something went pop in his head and the compulsion went away as his nose and knuckles began to bleed.

The woman cast Charm Person and Broneslav failed his saving roll so he opted to Defy Death (2 DAM) to avoid the effects.

He leapt towards the pair, recognising their duplicity. Horror dawned in their eyes as they realised he had overcome their spell. He crushed the woman's head and smashed the man hard to the ground. Blood dripped from the man's head. Even as he fell, the man's body started to twist and change. Suddenly, where the man had been there was a fox, also wounded in the head. It bounded away towards the far end of the room faster than Broneslav could follow.

The youth paused a moment to listen. Did these people or whatever they were have friends close by? He heard nothing but moved carefully towards the female. She was definitely dead. No doubt about that whatsoever. He moved pantherlike to the big corridor. The fox was not in sight.

Moving slowly up the corridor, Broneslav listened carefully but heard nothing. At the end of the corridor, he tried to use the corner as cover while he looked for the fox. The room he looked into was a large hall with vaulted roof and pillars. Huge double doors stood partially open at the far end, but completely blocked by sand. The fox could not have left that way. No other exits were visible, so it must be hiding behind one of the pillars.

Suddenly the fox appeared, as suspected, from behind the nearest pillat and sprinted towards Broneslav at full speed. It dodged around him, looking for a way out. Unfortunately, Broneslav was quick enough to make a wild smash as it passed and it collapsed to the ground, tumbling slightly because of its momentum. Even as Broneslav moved towards it, it breathed its last. When the last breath had left its body, it transformed back into the red-headed man.

He'd heard tales of werewolves who shifted between human and wolf form before, so these two must have been werefoxes. He'd never heard of that. When he got home, he reckoned this would be worth a kind word or two from his parents. And the jewellery they were carrying would earn him another kind word, he mused as he robbed the corpses of necklaces and other items that looked rather valuable.

4 Yarthmont - Feeling crushed

 With his cuts cleaned up, Demetrius threw open the door to the consultation room and strode up the corridor. At the junction he turned right, and then turned left at the next junction. Faced with a blank wall, he stepped on a slightly protruding flagstone in one corner of the corridor and pushed the wall ahead of him. It swung open to let him into another corridor. Right, then left and a longer walk before he turned right. The door to Darius' chambers lay ahead. Demetrius strode forwards and suddenly the walls crashed in towards him. He dodged but not quickly enough and cried out in pain (5 DAM).

The noise was huge and he felt sure that Darius must now be warned of his approach. Speed would be to his benefit now. If he were quick enough, he might reach Darius before he was fully prepared. Casting cure light wounds, he healed the damage the trap had done (Heal 6 HP), reflecting how Darius had beefed up the defences here since he had been alive.

Kicking the door in ahead of him, he was confronted with the strange sight of ten people in dark robes and masks representing nightmare creatures all standing in a circle, motionless and not reacting to Demetrius at all. Suddenly one of them screamed in terror. Demetrius jumped, but he recognised people in thrall to Zargon and knew they were harmless unless he attacked them. Darius' chambers were to his right, so he moved swiftly to the door on that side of the room and kicked that one open too.

This room too was full of people, this time all masked as animals and dressed in brightly coloured robes. They were all involved in card games and dice games. The atmosphere in the room was convivial apart from the fact that none of them acknowledged Demetrius' violent entry. Assessing the threat, Demetrius decided there was none unless he triggered it himself. He marched straight across the room to a section of the wall where he pushed a loose stone low down near the floor and the wall swung open. Here was Darius with his followers in the newly revealed room. They were armed and ready, but Demetrius was on the warpath and would brook no delays in his vengeance.

Deciding that he needed to neutralise Darius as fast as possible, Demetrius cast Hold Person at him. Darius froze.

That was close. Darius failed the save by 1 point. Lucky that Demetrius focused the spell on Darius so that he had a penalty to save. I was tempted to try to slow down more of the baddies, but chose not to.

Demetrius then swung his mace with savage and brutal intent, and slew two of the hobgoblins that were Darius' guard. That left four more hobgoblins and a dozen human guards. The remaining guards swarmed Demetrius, who retreated to the doorway to provide some measure of cover. With Darius neutralised, he had time to deal with them all safely. He blocked the attacks of those who could reaching him and counterattacked unsuccessfully. A brief exchange of blows left no one hurt, then Demetrius attaked with renewed vigour and three of the hobgoblins fell to his blows. The extra effort nearly cost him, but he just managed to block several blows and turn those blocks into attacks that cost a hobgoblin and a Cynidicean their lives.

With the hobgoblins dead, Demetrius faced lesser opponents. Three of the humans fell swiftly to his mace and he advanced into the room. In no time at all he stood panting amid the bodies of Darius' bodyguard. Only Darius remained, still paralysed by the spell.

Demetrius could see what was to come in Darius' eyes. The hatred and the fear were clearly present, even though he could not move a muscle. Demetrius swung his mace and crushed Darius' skull. The priest of Zargon fell to the floor.

4 Yarthmont - Snakes in a Pyramid

Demetrius pulled the door open to the room beyond. He now stood in his (long abandoned) kitchen and dining room. Dust covered the cupboards, chairs and tables. The door from this room stood partially ajar. Two snakes with brown and yellow scales lay coiled around the body of a person in a rabbit mask. Seeing Demetrius, they uncoiled and slithered towards him.

He called once more upon Usamigaras and words of power poured from his mouth, even as he leapt to the attack. The Snake Charm took effect and one of the snakes stopped, raised its body up and began to sway gently. As he loosed the power of his god upon the one snake, he swung his shield at the other, catching it a firm blow. The snake was stunned by the blow, and he followed up with a blow of the mace. The snake snapped at him but he was easily able to evade it. Demetrius finally crushed the snake's skull with his mace, and turn and kicked the other snake firmly in the head as it started to recover from his spell and followed it up with a blow of his shield. The snake was clearly woozy as it tried to bite him but he blocked the blow easily. However, dodging the blow put Demetrius off balance and he only caught it a glancing blow. He dodged the next attack by the snake and crushed its skull with his mace. He was clearly out of practice because these snakes should not have taken so much time to defeat.

Sadly, while possessed Broneslav will not be earning experience or these snakes would have been a very nice stash of XPs indeed.

Demetrius ignored the body and headed to the opposite door. His mission to kill Darius would not wait. He had an idea where Darius should be, so it was just a case of getting there as quickly as possible.

Through the door was Demetrius' living room. He propped the door he had entered by open with a chair from the dining room and headed straight through to the only exit from this room. This opened onto a corridor that ended in a door with his former consultation room beyond. The room was set up with a desk in the middle and a row of chairs facing the desk. The desk chair looked comfortable, the others, well, not so much.

"Oh," Demetrius thought, "Those statues are new. Who has been using my office?"

As he moved to leave the room, suddenly the statues moved. Both gargoyles attacked in a flurry of claws and rock hard teeth and both bit him hard (2 DAM). Demetrius responded by smashing one of them with his mace and shield. Black ichor started flowing from the cracks in its skin. He followed this up in similar fashion and the gargoyle crashed to the floor, it's head caved in. Demetrius then blocked and evaded the other gargoyle's attacks, turning its momentum against it and bludgeoning the creature fiercely. The gargoyle got past his defences and clawed him (1 DAM). However, it was wounded badly and struggling. Demetrius easily killed it. He paused to bandage his wounds before moving on.

Heading for a Court Martial: Thunderbolt/Apache Leader (Dan Verssen Games) AAR

I decided to dig out Thunderbolt/Apache Leader (TAL) from Dan Verssen Games recently. It's another game I bought since moving to Norway, and, like Gloomhaven, it has the significant advantage that you can play a mission in half an hour, meaning that a campaign can be fitted easily into and around a busy week, provided that you have somewhere to leave it set up.

I've wanted this game since it first came out in 1991. Unfortunately, those were the days when I had more time than money, and little enough of either really. I played the original Hornet Leader that also came out in 1991 until the fateful day that my mother's dog ate my copy of that game, so I was aware of the system and knew that I got on with it. Still, it took thirty years before I found myself looking for more boardgames and jumped on TAL as one of my choices to fill my time.

I love what DVG has done with the game. The components are good quality and it comes with a mounted mapboard. I also like the new model hex tiles over the original game's cards. It's much more aesthetically pleasing. The only down side is the that the rulebook's structure and lack of an index makes looking things up quickly hard work. It's structured to fit with the game turn sequence, which is great, but that also means that information and rules can be scattered throughout the rules. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it's a pain when coming back to the game after a break. It's a good job the rules are available as a free pdf, which makes looking things up much easier, although I play boardgames to get away from my electronic gizmos so it partially defeats the object. Still, it's helpful, and I don't need to check my tablet too often.

One of the other attractions of TAL is that it is not too serious, although you might not believe that from some of the posters on the BGG forum! The game reminds me of watching Airwolf or playing one of the various arcade machines where you fly around strafing the baddies. It's very Hollywood/videogame, and I love that. I mean, even the hex tiles for the terrain remind me of every canyon Airwolf ever flew down, while the ability to 'fly' A-10 Warthogs reminds me of the planes that used to fly over our house on the way to the bombing range so low they nearly took the chimney off every time. I guess this game has a fair bit of nostalgia going on too!

The game itself is a mix of management and tactics. You need to manage your pilots, planes and resource points (SO points), and you need to plot the best route through the enemy to maximise death and destruction. Getting the balance right to achieve victory is proving problematic for me so far, and the best rating I have achieved is 'Adequate', which feels more like damning with faint praise than a real success.

Pakistan 2013: Rapid Deployment

So, how does it play? I picked the theatre and the mission at random and wound up with what looks like a rather difficult mission, even though it is rated as standard. The problem here is that I don't get a lot of resources unless I pick old tech and the enemy forces get a lot of bonuses for movement, so they are likely to be right up in my face from the get go.

For my squadron, I pick:

• 1 AH64 Apache (aka Airwolf!)
• 2 A10 Thunderbolts

This does not feel like enough planes to take on the rapidly advancing enemy, but I hope the A10s pack enough punch to blunt their advance from day 1. Anything the Apache ... umm, sorry ... Airwolf does will be a bonus. I also buy a Scout which can increase my time over the battlefield if I am lucky.

All set up to play. Damage chits and Random enemy chits in the cups at the top

The planes are accompanied by a stable of pilots equal to the number of each type of plane plus one. I select pilots and choose not to downgrade or upgrade any of them.

I draw the special condition for the day. Turns out the enemy is particularly mobile and get yet another bonus for advancing on my airbase. That means that all the assault forces are guaranteed to advance and the support forces will advance most of the time with the command forces probably advancing. This is going to be a problem.

Enemy starting locations. Each range band they move closer to my Air Base, the harder things get

Then it is time to allocate planes and pilots to missions. I decide to attack the Fast Assault force, the Scout force and the Air Defence force. The Fast Assault force needs to go because it gets extra bonuses to move towards my lines and I cannot afford to have lots of enemies up in my face. If they get there, it increases the Stress my pilots suffer, which in turn increases their likelihood of becoming unavailable to fly. There are already enough modifiers that will lead to the enemy closing in on my, so they need to go. The other two are more vulnerable forces so I am focusing on them in the hope that I can destroy them more easily. That will reduce the number of targets I need to attack on Day 2. Ideally, some of the forces that give all those horrible bonuses will advance at the end of Day 1 and become more vulnerable to attack.

Day 1

So, time to arm my planes and enter the fray. I'm going to allocate 1 SO point to each plane which will buy me 10 points of weapons. That permits me a good number of Hellfire missiles and other better quality bombs and missiles, making Day 1 a bit easier.

First up is Gumby in an A10 versus the Air Defence force. The terrain is laid out and I dice for the locations of the baddies and it looks good. Looking at the (randomly determined) terrain layout and enemy deployment, combined with the 'Low Approach' Mission Event which means that the bad guys don't get to fire on turn 1, a clear tactic is evident. Gumby will use the ridge lines for cover and fly a low figure eight through the enemy. With a few decent dice rolls, he has a chance of taking out the whole force. We'll start by getting up close and personal with a SAM unit before it has a chance to fire. Those SAMs are quite lethal if I am not careful.

The flight goes substantially as expected. The enemy is caught by surprise and the Hellfires are on target, leaving a trail of carnage in Gumby's wake. The only problem is the SAM unit and an APC that take cover, meaning that Gumby will not be able to use Hellfire missiles on them. Instead, he has to get in and use his cannon. Unfortunately, he is not as good with cannon as he is at standing off and firing missiles, so it is a chancier attack. He flies in and misses the APC, leaving him vulnerable to attack by both it and the SAM unit. The choice of an ECM pod suddenly comes into its own. I roll unfeasibly high and both units find their attacks jammed and unable to lock. With his fuel low, Gumby gets up close and personal with the SAM unit and destroys it, before dodging some enemy fighters on his return to base.

Target destroyed, sir!

Next up is Pirate in an A10 versus the Scout force. Upon reflection, I think this was a mistake. Pirate should have attacked the Fast Assault force. Again, the terrain is laid out and the enemy deployed. The route through the enemy is less clear this time, but I plan a similar flight path to last time. In no time at all, the Scout force is scattered and Pirate is flying home.

Enemy destroyed, Sir!

The third mission for the day sees Judge flying an Apache in an attack on the Fast Assault force. I had thought he could hover and fire off the Hellfire missiles in a bid to take out half the force, which would then be ripe for picking off the next day. Unfortunately, he could not hit the broad side of a barn door and the enemy remained largely unscathed.

The enemy advance rapidly

The day ended with the enemy battalions advancing. Not unexpectedly, given all the modifiers, the assault battalions moved quickly towards my baseline and the support and command battalions seemed mostly keen to keep up.

Day 2

Day 2 dawned and my pilots were ready for their next mission. They even got an Email from Home (special condition for the day) that reduced their stress from the day before.

I needed to take out the Fast Assault force because it was closing in on my airbase. With the support battalions moving up, they had become better targets too and I could think about taking them out to slow down the advance by removing some of those modifiers that made it easier for the enemy to close on me.

So, I sent in Gumby to take on the Fast Assault force. He was having a bit of an off day though and only reduced it to half strength. Worse yet, the enemy got their eye in and punched all kinds of holes in his plane, but he still got it home.

Partial success. If you look at the sector map (top right) you can see that Battalion 9A has advanced  at the start of the day thanks to the special ability of the enemy Engineering unit

Flash got sent after the enemy Engineering Unit, because that one gave the enemy assault forces a free advance at the start of each day. Standing off in his Apache, he sent missile after missile at them and destroyed the battalion, although he took some damage that would soon be repaired.

Flash gives the enemy what for!

Pirate pitched up in his A10 with orders to take out the enemy Infantry Battalion. The initial approach went well, but he soon found himself outnumbered and outgunned. A lucky enemy shot saw him killed in his cockpit! Nothing you can do when you draw the 'Killed' chit from the damage pot.

Pirate's name is added to the squadron Roll of Honour

This was a bad day for mission events with my pilots encountering enemy fighters and enemy SAMs both on the way in and on the way home. I'm low on SO points with all the enemy on the doorstep of my base, so I'm going to have to focus on clearing up there before I can try anything fancy.

Day 3

As Day 3 dawns, I realise I am in trouble and see that I should have concentrated my forces better in the early stages. Better to kill units properly than spread my fire around. Worse yet, the special condition for the day is Enemy Advance. I choose to advance a command unit that was close to the rear, but it is still a less-than-ideal situation. I've not had the best random event draws so far with most going against me. Maybe today things will pick up.

So, Time to send Halo out to attack the Fast Assault force in an A10. It's at half strength so he should be ok. The mission goes as anticipated and Halo is able to finish off the force. Horray!

Flash heads out in an Apache to take on a Mixed Force. He should be less vulnerable to this force than to the Infantry Force (I thought!). My goal is to try to reduce it to half strength. I think destroying it is an unrealistic goal Unfortunately, things do not go to plan. It was not possible to position his Apache where it could avoid being shot at. The first shot wounds Flash and leaves him unable to fire on the first turn. Never mind. Try again. Bang! He is wounded again, killing him and his Apache crashes. He never even got a shot off.

Two pilots down, and two planes down. This is bad. I'm just lucky to have enough SO points to not suffer immediate defeat. I spend a tonne of victory points replacing the two destroyed aircraft and a tonne of SO points repairing damage. Meanwhile, the enemy is right outside my airbase and all up in my face.

Day 4

Day 4 was a mad scramble to keep things under control.

I sent Gumby out to take on one of the command forces. I figured it would be a reasonable chance of getting at least half victory points. As it turned out, Gumby was able to annihilate the whole force, although his plane came home with a tonne of bullet holes in it. I'm going to have to claim this one on insurance, I think.

I send out  an Apache and a Thunderbolt (piloted by my new pilot, Thor) against the infantry force that had killed Pirate. They piled into the combat area and started laying around them with Hellfire missiles, cannon rounds and anything else they could drop. The enemy battalion was destroyed but both pilots returned home with planes that looked like lace hankies more than they did combat aircraft. Thor was definitely going to need a week off after this. Good job they build those Thunderbolts solidly but I see another insurance claim in the offing.

Game end

With two battalions destroyed on the last day, I totted up the points. My score of 10 points gave me a Dismal rating, but at least I did not lose. In retrospect, I should not have bothered buying an extra Thunderbolt pilot to replace Pirate. Not spending that point would have raised my rating from Dismal to merely Poor.

Final Thoughts

Well, wasn't that a fine mess I made? Hardly my finest hour, but I had fun and I can safely blame the mission event cards and the damage chits for my worst failures. It felt like every flight was either sent bad coordinates or encountered enemy anti-aircraft fire heading to or from the target. Similarly, the damage chits were all quite serious, and my ECM barely functioned after the first day. I'm definitely taking the ECM back to Toys R Us and demanding a refund. The special conditions were more balanced and helped keep me in the game though.

This is a game I can pick up whenever I feel like without worrying that I need to completely relearn the rules. The tactics, on the other hand, are something I need to work on. It can be hard balancing needing to damage as many enemy battalions as possible with needing to concentrate my firepower to fully destroy them.

I do need to try using more different aircraft, but, honestly, I only got the game because I wanted to fly Thunderbolts, and to a lesser extent Apaches.

There is little to differentiate the different theatres other than the technology at the date the campaign is set, so Libya is the same as Pakistan is the same as the North Atlantic WW3. That means that the scene setting has to happen in your head. Fortunately, the different missions do feel different. The Rapid Deployment mission feels different from the Surge mission, for example. Despite the lack of differentiation in the theatres, the mix of aircraft and missions is sufficient to provide enough variety straight out of the box without buying any of the expansions. Overall, this is a great fun game. It's cinematic, arcade action on the tabletop and just what the doctor ordered. Now, do I set up for a different campaign or try something different next?

4 Yarthmonth - What Lies Beneath

Broneslav dropped quickly through the trapdoor and found himself in a small empty room with stone walls and floor. There were no exits, so Broneslav immediately began to search. Soon he found a secret door that opened into a larger room beyond. This new room had clearly been inhabited and was as its owner had last left it. But it was dusty too, and looked like the owner had not returned in some time. A white hooded cloak lay cast over a wooden chair. A bed, a wooden chest and a table completed the ensemble. On the table was a wooden carving of two intertwined snakes.

It was a bit weird that the secret door would open into someone's bedroom. Broneslav could not fathom why this might be unless those in the pyramid above were denied entry to this section, or were only permitted entry by the gatekeeper in this room. He decided he could go round in circles trying to work out all the possible options and that the best approach would be just to accept that this was the way and continue his explorations.

Broneslav opened the chest. It contained clothes for a slighter man than he was. The cloak on the chair looked good though. That was the advantage of cloaks; one size pretty much fits all. Picking it up, he staggered as a psychic force hit him.

4 Yarthmont - A Fresh Start

The Magi healed Broneslav, and let him rest fully before returning to the lower tier. They even identified the potion he had found as a Potion of Invisibility, all in the name of helping him to help them defeat their rivals and the evil Zargon.

Broneslav returned quickly to the corridor near the embalming room and continued onwards. The next room he came to had a two foot wide hole chewed through the door. Teeth marks were clearly evident. He decided to leave well enough alone and continue down the corridor. Suddenly three giant shrews leapt out of the hole in the door and assaulted Broneslav. The frenzied assault left Broneslav with a bite on his leg (1 DAM), but he slew a shrew in return despite the welling fear that left an iron taste in his mouth. He then fended off further assaults from the two remaining shrews, managing to kill both of them quite quickly.

Figuring that this meant the room was now safe, he entered and found scenes of a man giving advice to kings and queens painted on the walls. The coffin in the centre of the room had been gnawed to pieces and nothing remained of the body within. He left. He had only one more corridor to search, based on his map, and this was where the X was.

The X proved to be the site of a trapdoor. Seeing nothing else to take his interest and now route to the centre of the pyramid, he opened the trapdoor and began to climb down.

Despite his tracking skill and sharp eyes, Broneslav has managed to fail to spot the two secret doors to the centre of the pyramid where the big treasure lies. This area was not detailed on his map, so he is unaware of what he is missing out on. Ah well, such is the life of the murder hobo.