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Spoiler Warning!!!: Plot and/or ending details of a Fighting Fantasy publication follow. Please DO NOT read this article if you do not want foreknowledge of this publication. Although the article below is based on canon, some of its content is considered extrapolation because it assumes a certain course of events through an adventure that has many possible routes.

"Spoiler!" Beware!
Northgate

The North Gate of Kharé open wide to the Baklands.

The North Gate of Kharé is the cityport's gateway to the Baklands.

Unlike Kharé's South Gate, facing the Shamutanti Hills,[1][2] the North Gate is magically locked and cannot be opened by a simple key. It is Kharé's bulwark against the Chaotic Baklands. Protected by Crolian guards and bound by magic, every precaution has been made to make the gate secure.[3]

Upon approaching the gate, a voice will ring out asking for the unlocking spell.[4] The penalty for getting the spell wrong is a harsh one - the gate's guardian, a Sulphur Ghost, will emerge and suffocate the poor unfortunate who uttered the wrong lines.[5]

The Unlocking Spell[]

The North Gate spell is known in its entirety only to Sansas, Kharé's first noble. He is unavailable, and it is said in the text that he is sailing up the Jabaji. However, four of Kharé's nobles each hold a single line of the spell. The key to the gate, then. is finding the Nobles and gaining the lines.

The Holders of the Spell[]

One line each can be gained from the Holy Man of Slangg, Lortag the Elder, Shinva and the Seventh Noble. The player must also perform a ritual at the Shrine of Courga.

Using and Acquiring the Unlocking Spell in the Gamebook[]

Sulphurghost

The penalty for uttering the wrong password, death.

The spell is a quatrain, and runs thusly:

So tumblers two sealed deep inside
One lock made out of Golem's hide
By Courga's grace and Fourga's pride
I bid you, portals, open wide.


The player must gain a reference number from the spell's lines. The spell suggests (214). Line one contains a 2, line three contains a 1 while 4 is found in Fourga's name on line four.

214 is the correct order, and turning to this reference unlocks the gate. The quatrain has five other possible combinations - 124, 142, 241, 412 and 421. All of them result in death at the hands of the gate's guardian. The correct sequence of 214 can be deduced fom the fact that no other ordering of the lines reads coherently. It also happens to be the order in which the lines are given within the narrative.

Lortag's line is acquired first, then the Holy Man of Slangg's, then Shinva's and finally the Seventh Noble's line is gained from him and completed by performing the kissing ritual at the Shrine of Courga.

See Also[]

References[]

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