There's something wonderful afoot. Are you sure you want to walk away?\n\n[[Of course! Adventure isn't for the likes of me.|END1]]\n[[Wait, you're right! Fortune favours the bold.|DA]]

You're a brave soul, so you place your hand in the Pompeiian's petrified palm. Immediately, it closes around yours, and it's warm! The figure starts to move, shuffling and then running, dragging you down an alleyway. The stones around grow less timeworn, and suddenly everything has changed. The figure is gone, but hundreds of new sights have taken its place. You've... travelled in time!\n\n[[Holy cow!|E]]\n[[By Neptune's trident!|E]]

Your blue digital watch beeps for noon, and you wipe another sheen of sweat from your face. It's so hot out here in Italy!\n\n[[No wonder they only wore bedsheets.|B]]\n[[Is this why they took so many baths?|B]]

Uh, sure. Okay then. You run off to find your class, who are looking at a mosaic. The guide is now talking about Emperor Titus. You listen very hard, pass all your exams at school, and live out your days as an accountant. Great job!\nTHE END

The door looks sturdy, so you burst through and into... an iron-monger's. Heavy iron lines the walls, and lines the mighty door which swings shut behind you with a thud. Still, if you had to choose a tomb, this wouldn't be too bad. Very grand...\nTHE END

You hunker down in the crowded boathouse, thanking your keen eyesight. If only you'd used your ears earlier - you think, as superheated gas rushes through the enclosed space to burn you - you'd have remembered what the tour-guide said about "burned-out boathouses." I guess tour guides are worth listening to, after all...\nTHE END

Of course! You dive into the carpenters and beneath a workbench, you see a cellar. You dive through just in time to hear terrible fury rush overhead. You climb down, down, down... eventually, you stumble out into - the modern world! Thank Zeus. You rush out into the street to find your tour group looking at a small boy, in prayer, and you realize you'll never forget the lessons of history.\nTHE END!\n

You hoped that the screams that come from beyond the passageway were screams of excitement, of people making their way down an escape. But you come up on a great town square, choked with the fleeing Pompeiians. You are swept up in the panic before you know what's going on.\nIf it's any comfort, historians will spend years wondering how such a strange body ended up amongst the dead.\nTHE END

"I can't leave you like this. Isn't there anything I can do for you?"\nShe smiles, sadly. "That's sweet. If this is what's fated for me, I'll accept it. But if you could bring me my paints, I'd be glad to die doing what I love." She points to a pot on a high shelf, and you bring it down. "Thank you, my child. I leave you with this advice: there is a secret passage out of the city, below the carpenter's. Now go!"\n\n[[Well, that's handy...|I]]

Escape from Pompeii

Must be a reconstruction, right? As you walk over to the arch, you get this sense of being pulled in. And peering through the arch, you could swear the sun shines brighter. You know what to do.\n\n[[Step through the arch!|CA]]\n[[The tour group is getting away! Better go find them.|CB]]

That's about the only thing you've learnt on this field trip so far. The guide up ahead is still droning on about Emperor Augustus. Apparently he built lots of buildings here including some now burned-out boathouses that shouldn't really warrant the fuss, but all you can see now are roofless stones...except...\n\n[[That archway looks newer than the rest.|C]]\n[[Eww, what's that over there?|D]]

Well, quite. Looks like you're a regular Doctor Who. You don't feel any different, but your senses are bursting as though you've stepped through the screen of a gladiator film, straight into a Roman provincial town. Everywhere you look are flowing togas - not just the boring white sheets from pictures, but vivid greens, blues, purples. What else?\n\n[[Have a listen.|EA]] \n[[Sniff around.|EB]]

Leaning against a pillar, frozen as if in a scream, with one closed fist stretched out towards you, is a petrified clay figure. There are hundreds of these, all over the site, but this one is different. As you approach it, its fist opens. In invitation?\n\n[[Reach out and take its hand.|DA]]\n[[This is definitely not supposed to happen. Let's find the guide.|DB]]

Your head is filled with visions of raging smoke and ash for who-knows-how-long... then a gentle hand touches you and you open your eyes. You're lying in a little stone studio. A woman, she must be about fifty, is sitting at an easel.\n"You're awake!" says a female voice. "Count your blessings, barbarian." She smiles. Your watch beeps, and you look at the display: 16:00. The woman looks at the blue plastic suspiciously.\n\n[["What happened here?"|GA]]\n[["I know what happened here..."|GB]]

The ground shakes and dust shifts beneath you, and an almighty bang booms from afar. But there were no explosives in Ancient Rome... and then you remember! Great Mount Vesuvius, looming above the city, has just belched a huge black cloud into the sky. As the fearful column rises, the townspeople shriek. "Gods help us!" says a man. You realize with a start that you have somehow learned Latin, but then you see the crowds of people charging towards you...\n\n[[Run!|FA]]\n[[Hide! Some people are sheltering in those wooden boathouses...|END2]]

Shaken, you run outside. The streets are quieter now, though you still hear wailing cutting through the distant rumble. A few meters down the street, a boy of no more than eight is kneeling before a small shrine. He looks at you. \n\n[[Stop to talk to him.|IA]]\n[[Keep running.|IB]]

Alriiii - wait, really??\n\n[[Yeah, my parents didn't sign that consent form so I could run off through magical arches.|END1]]\n[[Nah, just kidding. Let's do this!|CA]]

Alright! You lean closer to the shimmering arch and hear strange noises: horses clopping, foreign shouts... is that clashing steel? - and suddenly you're pulled in. Your watch still says 12:04 but you know what's happened. You've travelled in time.\n\n[[Holy cow!|E]]\n[[By Neptune's trident!|E]]

And you thought Rome Airport was busy! Your ears are filled with the hollers and exclamations of busy Roman traders, the shuffling of beasts of burden, and...\n\n[[What? WHAT??|F]]

You were always a bit unusual. You take a great lungful of air, and it's filled with a mix of good and bad. Spices and perfumes fill the air - they say Pompeii was on trade routes between Cumae, Nola and Stabiae - but they never mentioned the smell of... poo. Well, they also said the sewers weren't perfect. All these thoughts are knocked right out of your head when you sense...\n\n[[What? TELL ME!|F]]

"...the volcano! Miss, we have to get out of here."\nThe woman looks startled, but shakes her head. "I wish I could, but I cannot move. People left too quickly to spare a thought for the crippled. Gods know how I managed to drag you here..."\nShe moves her robe; her left leg is gnarled and weak. There is another great rumble from outside.\n\n[[Leave the house, to find a way out.|I]]\n[[Stay, and try to help the woman.|H]]

The woman shakes her head. "Angry Gods, though I don't know why. The mountain has thrown up a great black cloud, and all is night. Most people have fled, but I... I have nowhere to go."\nShe shakes her head. There is another great rumble from outside.\n\n[[Leave the house, to find a way out.|I]]\n[[Stay, and try to help the woman.|H]]

"Demeter, if you're there..." His voice quivers. You go to help him, but he stares through you at some imagined force beyond. You try to take him, but he seems fixed to the ground. His mumbled prayers are calm, though, and you realize it might be better to leave him to the peaceful death he has chosen, than a life alone.\n\n[[Run on, and never look back.|IB]]

The mountain lets out another roar as you come to a junction: three buildings at three dead-ends. Far away behind you a glowing stream rushes down the hillside. Far away, but getting closer. Your final choice has come. You look at the signs above the buildings: FERRARIUS, LIGNARIUS, AGORA. The heat approaches. Which do you choose?\n\n[[FERRARIUS.|END3]]\n[[LIGNARIUS.|END5]]\n[[AGORA.|END4]]

Where to? You turn and flee, but the ground's still shaking, and you don't know where you're going. You stumble down the main street with the sound of the crowd growing louder behind you, your foot slips on a particularly large stone, the world turns sideways as your head hits the ground - and everything turns black.\n\n[[Whoa...|G]]

James Mitchell