Captain Dirk nods and takes out his Teaser Gun. He presses an awkward series of buttons and turns a few knobs, and suddenly the Teaser Gun begins shouting to no one in particular.
"Hey road! Yeah, you, you stinking pile of bricks? Running from us, are you? What are you? CHICKEN? That's it, isn't it! You're YELLOW! A no good, lily-livered, yellow-bellied--"
The Teaser gun is drowned out for a second as the ground rumbles loudly and begins to quake. About 50 yards to the East, a large mound of earth rises into the sky, atop which you see the yellow brick road, writhing in anger.
The Teaser Gun continues prattling obliviously.
> Turn off Teaser
You frantically reach over to Dirk and turn off the Teaser Gun and listen as it slowly winds into silence. Unfortunately, the damage is done: the Yellow Brick Road is now bearing down at you like an avalanche.
> Run
You and your companions charge randomly through the underbrush. After a few minutes, you've lost the road again. You're standing in a small clearing surrounded by tall, bright blue trees. The sky to the east is glowing green, and the sun is setting to the west. Miraculously, Dirk, the scarecrow and Lord Ossccarrrrrrssss all manage to stumble into the clearing at the same time you do--albeit from entirely different directions.
You can still hear the road smashing around nearby. Once it settles down it shouldn't be too hard to find.
> Look at glow
The eastern sky is glowing green.
> Ask about glow
You ask your companions about the glow. Dirk nods happily.
"That's the glow from the Emerald City's smelting factories," he informs you. "Emeralds don't make a very good building material--not until you've melted them down from the raw ores, anyway. The whole city pulls emeralds up out of the mines and throws them into their furnaces, and the smelting process makes that fog up there. We follow that glow, and we'll be with the Whizzer by sometime tomorrow!
Which reminds me. You'll all be needing these."
Dirk hands a pair of dark green sunglasses to you and each of your companions.
"What are these for?" asks Lord Ossccarrrrrrssss.
"It's the heat, y'see. The Emerald City itself is made of pure emerald, o' course, and it traps and refracts light and heat. Some folks think it's so bright y'can go blind jus' by standin' near it, but that's a load of rubbish, of course. But y'add to that the heat o' the furnaces and the emerald slag, and it gets awful hot, and...well..."
"Well what?" asks the Scarecrow.
"Well, occasionally people just sort o'...burst inta flame. Sputaneous Bustion they call it."
The Scarecrow is looking decidedly concerned at this point.
"I don't get it," you ask. "What good will the sunglasses do cooling us down?"
"Oh no," says Dirk, "They won't lower the temperature at all. You just LOOK cooler."
You all put on your sunglasses.
You notice the road has quieted now: maybe you should go looking for it.
> Emeralds don't work that way.
You should really go find the road now.
> Find road
After a few minutes, you manage to stumble across the road--literally. You could swear it tried to trip you, but it seems settled enough now. The road continues west and east.
>E
As the sun sets, you and your companions start east on the road once again. You notice you're approaching a sign, which reads:
Emerald City
106 miles
Which, as you figure it, pretty much caps the day: all your wandering around has put you about 50 miles back in the wrong direction, and since you haven't been here before, you're not sure you're even on the right road. But all yellow-brick-roads lead to the emerald city, right?
You hear a low growling coming from the bushes to the left.
> Examine bushes
You move to take a closer look, when suddenly a lion leaps from the bushes and attacks the Scarecrow, knocking him to the ground in a heap.
Roaring, the lion turns and starts running towards you.
> status
It's 106 miles to the Emerald City, you've got an empty bucket, a shard of flint, a pocket sword, 2 cents, a gun with 1 bullet remaining, a dusty bottle containing a very small amount of olive oil, a clipper lighter, a shield and a pair of silver slippers, it's dark, and you're wearing sunglasses. There is a lion running towards you.
> Hit it.
With what?
> Hit it with the empty bucket.
You're tired and you can barely see, but you swing wildly, clobbering the lion right on the nose. It draws up short in surprise, whines and starts crying uncontrollably.
> That was really long.
You're just making it longer now. Hush.
