(Part 3, from the 1987 D&D UK Annual. Pictures are the property of TSR © 1987, and are unfortunately used without their permission)
Plot summary by Zakiyah
![[Seed Pod Adventure]](87p56.gif)
Our heros, having left the garden by way of floating seed pods...onward
they speed, until they are flying over the Black Lake, a sludgy body of
liquid more like molasses than water. It is into this murky lake
that their seed pods land them. After their momentary panic, DM appear
to point out that the seed pods also make perfectly servicable boats.
Their next destination....the Bottomless Bog!
"Till we meet again,seek not for what you can find. And remember, you are in this world together...and that is the way you should leave it." With these casual words, DM vanishes once more. Diana points out there is no land in sight, and Eric remarks that at least "we have plenty of water flasks and enough vitamin pills to last us..." (At least we know now that DM was keeping his kids healthy...)
Eric also points out that they were safe for the moment, which of course summons a nasty sea dragon to attack them. It decides to try munching the little one first, and ends up getting a faceful of magic club. Smarting, it submerges and prepares to attack from below. While the kids frantically ponder what to do, dozens of sharks also swarm onto the scene. In the frenzy that follows, Eric and Uni's pods are capsized. Presto conjures a last minute spell that draws everyone else's pod out of the water and they speed away, not yet realizing they've left two of their number behind.
![[The Key of All Power]](87p57.gif)
Eric and Uni give themselves up for lost, but the sharks are actually dolphin-like
creatures (with scales and sharkfins) who are busily driving away the sea
dragon. Moments later they restore his lost sword and shield as well....along
with something else that must have been lying on the lake bottom- a golden
key. To his amazement, it glows brightly in the sunlight. Puzzled,
he asks the dolphins, or dragophins as he dubs them, to take him
to his friends, feeling more than a little surly at being abandoned.
Shadowdemon flies off to report to Venger that the key to all power, lost
ages ago, has been found.
At the same moment as Eric holds the key, an iland springs into view before the other kids, still bourne on the waves of Presto's spell. A moment later they crash onto it...tumbling straight into an armed camp of strange ape-lizards. And the lizards aren't friendly. They want the key. The kids are in a jam now, for they don't have it....nor do their weapons work here! They call in vain to DM...but his magic would also be useless there. Only Eric could save them now.
![[Lizard-Ape King]](87p58.gif)
Eric was by this time trudging along the beach with Uni, feeling lonely
indeed. Discovering a cloaked figure traped beneath a branch, he
uses his magic sword (?!) to lever it off.
The grateful stranger, who is actually Venger in disguise, offers Eric
a drink of water (actually a draught of deception!). Uni sees
through the ruse immediately, but Eric sees only a tired old man.
"Give me the key," the stranger says, "And I'll show you the way home...." He points to a door in the rocks nearby, claiming that he also is of earth, trapped in the Realm. His words are persuasive, but Eric still asks about his friends. "Forget them...just as they forgot you!" Drunk on the draught of deception, Eric hears the laughter of his friends in the trees...next Venger shows him a scene of his friends happy and laughing around a campfire.
In actuality, his friends were at that moment headed toward the glowing door on the rock...or rather, to the Chasm of no Return nearby, to be tossed into it by angry lizard-apes.
![[Venger's Ruse]](87p59.gif)
Uni, at this point, sees Eric about to hand over the key- and leaps at
him, knocking him into the icky lake. The water he swallows dilutes
the potion, and he sees Venger for what he is. Fleeing in terror,
he arrives on the scene just in time to watch his friends being booted
into the chasm-- too late!
Venger taunts him with the knowedge that they are lost forever now....why not turn over the key, so that he at least can go home?
Eric remembers DM's words at that moment, and tells Venger to get lost, hurling the key into the Chasm of No Return. As Venger howls, the island melts away again into nothingness. Uni and Eric fall in to the black waters of the lake, and realize that the other kids are bobbing right alongside them.
DM explains that the key summoned up the doorway and its guardians, a dread place where neither mortals nor immortals can use their magic. But now that the key is once more in the lake, all is well. And Eric has passed his most difficult test.
DM vanishes, and the dragophins return to gide them off to their next adventure.
The End
