The Rains of Sichuan {Choose Your Own Adventure} // Wattys 2019

Chapter Fourteen

With the wood splintered as it is, it shouldn't be too hard to knock the door down once more. You look around: the street is still empty as it could be. Even the neighbouring houses and boutiques have closed their wooden shutters. You grimly clench your jaw. Something really bad must have happened to cause this reaction.

You set down your pack and roll your shoulders. Then you take a breath and hurl yourself at the wood.

Do a Strength test, rolling two dice, or do a randow draw of 1-12.

1 to 4: the door resists a lot better than you thought it would, and your shoulder cracks as it smashes into it. The wood, however, is doing fine. You will have -2 to your next Constitution, Strength or Agility test. You can try to bash the door in again (ignoring the -2 just for this test) or try to go through the window by going to Chapter Fifteen.
[Stop reading here until you've redone the test]
If you fail to bash the door in again, your shoulder breaks and the pain is blinding. You will have -4 to your next Constitution, Strength or Agility test. Try the window: go to Chapter Fifteen.

5 to 8: the door cracks as you ram into it, just as you feel your shoulder snap. You fall into the boutique in a heap. You will have -2 to your next Constitution, Strength or Agility test.

9 to 12: you're good at this. You find the exact spot where the door is weakest and ram your shoulder into it, sending the wood cracking and yourself waltzing into the room. You trip over a fallen shelf and sprawl face forward onto a stack of cushions. You pick yourself up, loosen your sore shoulder, and look around.

Now that you're inside, you can really take stock of everything.

Most of the boutique has been smashed, and there are even traces of burning. If you are a Shaman, you can roll a dice or do a random draw of 1-6 for Intelligence. If you get 3 or more, go to Appendix 9.

You start to rummage through the debris, kicking broken boards and glass out of your way, when you suddenly hear a whimper. You stop and go perfectly still, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound. When it comes again, you focus on it: it comes from a door you hadn't noticed before, half-hidden and stuck closed by the bookshelf that has fallen on it. You pick your way to it and manage to push the empty bookshelf away. Carefully, slowly, you open the door.

If you took the Road North and no blood was shed, go to Chapter Sixteen.

If you took the Road North and killed the person you met, go to Chapter Seventeen.

If you took the Road South, go to Chapter Eighteen.