Gnomes-100, Dragons-0 By James M. Ward and Jean Blashfield Cover Art by Clyde Caldwell Interior Art by Jeff Easley To Robbie the Robot, J.M.W. This book is for Chandelle, my own inventive gnome, J.B.B. Gnomes-100, Dragons-0 ©Copyright 1987, TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR UK, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. CATACOMBS, DRAGONLANCE, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. First printing: November, 1987 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 86-91726 ISBN: 0-88038-503-0 987654321 All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. TSR, Inc. TSR UK, Ltd. P.O. Box 756 The Mill, Rathmore Road Lake Geneva, Cambridge CB1 4AD WI 53147 U.S.A. United Kingdom Permission granted to photocopy or print this product for personal use. The gnomes, of course, are inventors, not fighters. They I wouldn't touch that if I were you. consulted their histories and discovered that whenever the dragons had come to Mount Nevermind before, a human Common Gnomish Quote had led the gnomes to victory. So they sent their best gnom- ish recruiters to hire a human, any human. And youre it! INTRODUCTION Even if there were some way to get away from Sancrist, You are Rye, a recently promoted baker living on San- its really too late. Besides, the gnomes need your help. crist. You were a bakers apprentice for three long years, but There are only twenty days left before the enemy is sup- yesterday the Bakers Guild declared that you had attained posed to arrive, twenty days to explore the entire weird full bakerhood. You think it was your breadrolls that did it, mountain the gnomes have inhabited for thousands of but you cant be sure. years, to see what you can find that will be useful in the You spent the entire day yesterday looking for a job in the fight. Your thin body shivers at the thought. town and found nothing! Every bakery was willing to settle for an apprentice baker to avoid paying the guild rates If it doesnt work on the first try, demanded for a full-fledged baker. While drinking at a it certainly will on the 99th. local inn, trying to sop up your disappointment, you heard what sounded like the chance of a lifetime. Common Gnomish Quote A gnome at a nearby table was talking. He said, . HOW TO PLAY injustafewmonths thingswillreallybecookingaroundMount Nevermind . You enter a world where gnomes have been working for You caught the word cooking and then managed to centuries to build perfect machines. Your knowledge of interpret the rest of the rapid gnomish speech. Being an machines is limited to what you have learned using pots, enterprising young man, and having heard all you needed pans, and ovens. Your purpose is to locate within Mount to hear, you went over to them, bought drinks all around, Nevermind all the machines and other items that might be and started asking questions. useful in the battle against the dragons and draconians. The gnomes saidonce you managed to slow them After reading these instructions, turn to 8 and begin your downthat Mount Nevermind had a huge cavern filled adventures in the caverns of Mount Nevermind. with baking equipment, and hundreds of gnomes had a As you enter each new chamber, study the picture and Life Quest to develop the art of baking. The gnomes, glanc- read the boxed introductory material, usually at the top of ing at each other, also added that they were certain the bak- the page opposite the picture. From the illustration, you ing gnomes would be happy to share their secrets with the must decide whether to talk to or fight any creatures you human who would lead all the gnomes. Excitement rising see, or examine other objects that catch your eye. in you at the thought of secrets that might make you one of If the object or creature you wish to examine isnt listed the greatest bakers on Krynn, you pursued the conversa- in the choices given in the text, it is of no use to you on your tion . quest. The choices you make from the illustrations direct You asked the gnomes when they were going back to you to other sections of the book. Be sure to keep track of Mount Nevermind, and they said they had to hurry because the picture page you are at, with the GNOMISH MOUNT of the huge get-together coming in just a few months. The NEVERMIND WORKSHEET BOOKMARK which you can thought of leading the gnomes in baking for a huge party separate from the back cover, and mark down all the items made your eyes gleam with anticipation. you acquire for the final battle. Where can I sign up? you asked, and an important- The sections to which you are sent explain what happens looking gnome gave you a huge contract written in gnomish as results of your choices. There is danger at every turn, but which you quickly signed on the dotted line. there are also vital clues along the way that will help you That is how you became the general of all the gnomish complete your quest. With lots of luck, and even more armies! For what was cooking at Mount Nevermind was common sense, you will be able to help the gnomes over- preparation for war! come the dragonarmies. The rest of Krynn had been embattled for many months in the struggle to prevent the Queen of Darkness and her evil dragons and draconians from taking over the land. Word had reached the gnomes in their volcanic fastness on the Isle of Sancrist that a dragonarmy was comingwith evil dragons and hordes of the horrid dragonlike reptiles called draconianscoming to destroy the gnomes home- land. The only thing better than working, Well, all it needs is a bigger hammer. is making plans to work. Common Gnomish Quote Common Gnomish Quote COMBAT TIME IN THE MOUNTAIN At various points in your quest, youll encounter ene- You have twenty days in which to gather everything you mies. In order to retrieve items for the final battle, youll can find that might be useful in stopping the invading sometimes have to fight the enemies, or convince them in dragonarmy. Usually, if you go into a chamber you will some other way to give you things. spend 24 hours there. This takes into account inspecting The combat system is a simple give-and-take process. various machines, talking with the gnomes and creatures You try to strike your enemy. If you succeed (determined by around you, and eating and sleeping. a roll of a 12-sided die), you subtract life points from your There will be times during your quest when you acciden- enemy according to the weapon you used to do damage. For tallyor on purpose return to a certain area. If this hap- example, if you strike with your unarmored fist, you sub- pens, you use only half a day, 12 hours. Keep track of this tract 1 life point from the creatures total. If you strike with time. If you return to a chamber to get something you left armor, you do 5 points of damage, subtracting that number there or get information from things you didnt look at from the creatures life points (found on the Combat Table before, it takes only half a day. I you arrive there and quick- on page 160). ly leave again, you use no time at all. After you have attempted to strike the creature, it gets a Special conditions exist to give you more or less time in chance to strike at you. You roll the die for the creature, and the game. The text will always tell you how much time to if it hits, you subtract points from your total. Combat con- add or subtract (in increments of 24 hours). Keep track of tinues until you win or your enemy wins. If your enemy the passage of time on the worksheet bookmark. When you wins, you turn to the losing section of text. If you win, you are ready for the final battle, or when your twenty days have continue with your quest, reading the winning section of run out, turn immediately to 82. text. A Combat Turn consists of two parts: you attempting to MOVING AROUND IN MOUNT NEVERMIND strike, then the surviving creature attempting to strike. During combat, you generate random numbers either by The main method you will use to travel to the many dif- rolling a 12-sided die, or by randomly flipping the pages of ferent chambers in Mount Nevermind is perhaps the prize the book, in which case, the die face shown on the bottom gnomish invention, the gnomeflinger. Mounted in the cen- left is your die roll. ter of the main hall (central shaft of the volcano), it allows Turn to the Combat Table on page 160. the gnomes (or you) to be catapulted to places on the cliffs The first column lists the page number of the chamber in above.