The dim light from the room of Mindlessness slowly fades to blackness as you proceed down the hallway. Through the blackness comes the rhythmic sound of the grinding of stone on stone. It becomes louder as you cautiously approach through the darkness. Abruptly, a torch sputters and blazes to life from a sconce mounted into the northern wall. In the dancing orange light of the torch a soot-encrusted, brass plaque reads, "Light." The flickering illumination reveals to you, the source of the grinding noise. immediately before you, the passageway changes from plain stone to what appears to be a rotating carnival tunnel. Instead of being round, however, the tunnel is elliptical in shape. Its inside is thickly coated with a glistening, oily, black substance. The unmistakable odor of lamp oil stings your sinuses. The cloying darkness makes the tunnel's length indeterminable. Gamemaster The hall of Light is indeed a rotating carnival tunnel; oiled and elliptically shaped so as to be virtually impossible to walk in. Characters attempting to do so will fall many times before flopping out on the other side, weary and saturated with oil. If characters have not noticed the reversed theme plaques by now there is little hope for their survival. The western 35 feet of the tunnel is coated in a very slippery oil that can only be ignited by a very hot flame. The eastern 35 feet is coated in a less slippery, but very flammable oil. The flame of the torch is not enough to ignite the western half of the tunnel. How, ever, if the characters carry the torch with them, past the midway point, the eastern half will ignite. The heat from this flame will ignite the western half, and the entire tunnel will be ablaze. The clue to this room is "Darkness" reversed from light. Any fool so bold as to carry a lit torch into this potential inferno will turn himself, and anyone in the tunnel with him into a nice piece of crispy black stir-fry. Any moron who successfully flops out on the other side of the tunnel, saturat. ed with oil, and then asks his friends to throw him the torch, should be allowed to catch it - simply for the purpose of clearing out the shallow end of the gene pool. The oil will burn for ten minutes before exhausting itself. Score Chart +5 For anyone making it through the tunnel without an open flame. +3 For testing the oil for flammability. +4 For player extinguishing the torch and carrying it along. -10 For dying in this area +5 For best role player. More Code of the Rats Introductory Fantasy Adventure Introduction Adventure Set Up 1. Entry Room 2. Room of Abstinence 3. Room of Peace 4. Room of Forethought 5. Pit Trap 6. Wolves and Sheep 7. Dank and Dark 8. Room of Humor and Wisdom 9. Room of Caution 10. The Lone Plaque 11. Hall of Consistency 12. Mud-Filled Room 13. Room of Questioning 14. The Portcullis 15. Room of Reversal 16. Room of Trust 17. Room of Power 18. Room of Disunity 19. The Darkened Hallway 20. Room of Mindlessness 21. Room of Acceptance 22. The Rotating Tunnel 23. The Refreshments 24. Lemmings Leap 25. If Left is not Right 26. Room of Day 27. Room of Cogitation 28. A Locked Door 29. Room of Illogic 30. Room of Dishonesty Epilogue Map of the Dungeon Back to Shadis #21 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com