### 251

By the time you reach the base of the temple, the storm is howling like a vengeful demon in your ears. Stinging blasts of hot, sand-laden wind whip your face mercilessly, and you are forced to lean almost horizontally into the storm to maintain your balance. The storm is increasing in ferocity by the minute. You are sorely aware that you must find cover within an hour at most, or you will perish in this hellish blizzard.

An empty parapeted stairway ascends from the temple’s lowermost tier to the portal of its crowning tower. The parapet offers you protection from the wind, and you climb the many steps bent over, almost on your hands and knees, in order to stay out of the abrasive storm. Before you ascend the last tier, you check to make sure that your adversary is not lying in ambush. The portal is now closed, and you can sense no living creature nearby, yet you unsheathe your weapon from your belt and hold it ready in case danger should come from an unsuspected quarter.

When you reach the portal, you discover that it comprises a seamless sheet of lead-lined iron, many inches thick. You detect a lingering aura of magic around its threshold which makes you wary that a trap may have been set. Yet when you summon your psychic skills to probe deeper, you sense otherwise. You detect that Wolf’s Bane has deliberately cast an illusion of magic around this portal, no doubt in the hope that it will delay or deter you long enough for the storm to do its work. Confident that the door is not lethal, you examine it more closely. Set flush into the glassy surface of its surrounding arch, you discover an inscription above two squares of dull crimson gemstone. Your Sixth Sense reveals that tapping upon each square a correct number of times will cause the door to open. Cautiously you place your fingers lightly upon the squares and feel the gentle vibration of the door’s locking mechanism. By concentrating on these vibrations you hope to be able to decipher its locking codes.

After several minutes you determine that the first code is equal to the ENDURANCE points score at which a Grand Master cannot use the Discipline of Kai-surge.

The second code is equal to the number of villages that lie on the highway between the cities of Holmgard and Ragadorn.

In order to determine the numbers that will open the door to the temple, consult the map and games rules. When you think you know the two-digit solution, turn to the entry that is the same number as your answer.16

If you cannot decipher the codes, turn instead to 283.

#### Footnotes

[16] The section corresponding to the correct answer will have a footnote confirming that it is indeed correct.