The Goatman

You are driving down Fletcher Town Road in your 1980 Firebird. You have Zeus, your dog, in your car. The clock on your car says it's 10:30 . You know you should be getting home because your curfew is at 11:00 and last time you were late your mom took your keys for a month. But the night is so nice and there's nothing better than a late night drive. You push on the gas and keep on driving. You drive up to a fork in the road. Do you: Take left road [[3]] Take right road [[2]]

As you drive you look in your rearview mirror, admiring the way the lights of the nearby town fade into the darkness of the forest. You drive deeper into the dark, beautiful Patuxent Forest. You hadn't driven this road at night but you know how amazing of a view it is during the day, so it must be even better at night. Continue driving [[4]]

You take the left road. The road curves to the left and ahead of you see a tree on the road. What happened here you wonder to yourself. The tree was knocked down and you see the trunk of the tree was shattered. Was this the lighting from last night's storm? Or was this something else? You don't see another way around and so you turn around to take the right road. [[2]]

As you're driving, Queen plays on the radio. It is great music and you just let the music take you as you drive. Suddenly something falls on your car. Bang! The car screeches to a halt as you slam down on the brakes. You say out loud, "What the hell was that" as Zeus barks into the darkness You get out of your car to see what the damage was Check the car [[5]]

You get out of your car and walk over to the front to see what happened. You check the hood and you see a weirdly shaped dent in the middle of the hood. "Damn it" you think to yourself "That is going to be expensive to fix." You hear rustling behind you and you turn around just in time to see something running away deeper in the woods. Zeus barks at whatever that thing was. You get in car and drive away [[6]] Follow whatever it was into the woods [[7]]

Creeped out and feeling uneasy you just want to get out of there. You sit down in your car, locking the doors and windows. You know it probably was just a deer or something, but you don't feel comfortable with this whole scenario. You put the car in gear and start driving. [[8]]

Pissed off that something put a dent in your beloved car, you realize you have to chase down whatever or whoever that was. Before that, you go back to your car and unlock the side door, letting Zeus down. You reach into the back seat of your car and grab a pipe wrench you have in the back. You obtain a Pipe Wrench This is your weapon You run into the forest [[9]]

You start up your car and begin driving away fast. Speeding away just wanting to get off of this creepy road. Going around the bend you see someone standing in the middle of the road. Not wanting to hit them, you slam on the breaks. You notice it looks like a man wearing an animal mask. Looking them up and down you see that they aren't wearing a shirt and that they're wearing fluffy pants. The man has a thick beard and a pair of threatening horns on his head. And they have hooved shoes on, or wait .... are they really shoes? You realize it is the exact same shape as the dent on the hood of your car. They are holding a sharp silver axe in one hand. Get out of the car to confront him [[11]] Try to drive around [[18]] Drive at him [[51]]

You enter the woods, Zeus running ahead of you after whatever that thing was. It begins getting darker as the moon gets covered by a thick fog. It is pitch black, to the point where you can't see around you and just have to feel around. Feeling hopeless, you want to give up this useless chase and go back to your Firebird. I mean it's just a dent not a big deal. Then suddenly you hear Zeus bark. Go back to car [[10]] Go to the sound of your dog [[47]]

You turn around, walking towards the direction you came from. This whole thing was a mistake you think to yourself. After a few minutes you realize you are totally lost. Angry you turn and kick the trunk of a nearby tree, screaming out loud in frustration. All of a sudden you feel something sharp hit you in the back. You scream in terror and fall on the forest floor. Turning around you see the face of a goat looking at you. You get up and attempt to scramble away but feel a hand grabbing you and pulling you back. You look at what grabbed you and it's the goat with the body of a man. This monster lifts the axe it is holding and swings down at you. In these final moments of your life you think to yourself, this is what you get for abandoning your dog. Dead End

You walk towards the sound of Zeus barking. Suddenly you see light, dim at first, but growing as you walk forwards. You come out to a big clearing. You didn't know Patuxent Forest had big open spaces like this. In the middle of the clearing you see Zeus waiting and wagging his tail. Behind him is a big log cabin. Walk up to cabin [[13]]

Walking up to the cabin you take a moment to admire it. The cabin was clearly old and had to have been there at least forty years. It was a two story log cabin that clearly had been used at one point as housing. Maybe as a park ranger cabin? The cabin was made out of beautiful pine with a stone foundation. It had a big porch that wrapped around the front of the cabin. The cabin had a massive wooden front door and a window to the left of it. The porch was still wet from the storm the night before. Go to front entrance [[14]] Walk around the cabin [[15]]

You walk up the stairs of the porch and take a moment to admire the cabin closely. You notice an old rocking chair on the left, covered in moss. Clearly no one had sat in the chair in many years. You hear a creak and turn you head. The front door is slightly ajar. Carefully you push the door open and enter the cabin. It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cabin. Looking around you see just what you expected to see, a dark old cabin. On the left you see a set of old stairs leading up to the second floor. In front of you is a dark, closed door. And to your left is an open entrance to another room. You notice light coming from said entrance. Go to the creepy stairs [[23]] Go to the left entrance [[24]] Open the door in front of you [[41]]

You go to the right side of the cabin and look around, cautious. As you look around you see a small window at ground level. It must be a window for the basement. You notice that the window is slightly tipped open. It is big enough to slide through. Enter window [[16]] Keep walking around [[17]]

You open the window wider and slide down through. Opening your arm's for Zeus, he hops down wagging his tail. Letting him down, you look around to notice you are in a massive basement. The basement is a big space with stone walls. The space is being lit by natural light coming from the window you just came from. To the left of you is a massive metal cage that takes up half of the room. To the right of the basement are some stairs. Go left to the cage [[34]] Go right towards some stairs [[33]]

You continue walking around and get to the back of the cabin. Behind the cabin is a massive log storage. This is clearly there to keep the logs dry and used for regular storage. Inside you notice a huge blue tarp, like the one you use to cover your car during bad weather. Look under tarp [[26]] Leave the log storage [[27]]

As you get out of your car you realize that this is the man that just put a dent in your beautiful car, but not before you grabbed the pipe wrench that is in your back seat. You obtain a Pipe Wrench This is your weapon Before you get out you turn to Zeus and tell him to sit, not wanting your dog to be put in any danger. You begin walking towards him. "Hey you", you yell at him as you stop in front of your car " What's wrong with you" He stares at you, not moving. "You damaged my car and then just ran away!" You say, pointing to the dent he made on the hood He continues staring at you. "And what are you even wearing? Is there a crazy person convention in town?" He continues staring. You begin walking over to him and realize that it is not a weird costume. It's attached to him! He suddenly grunts and swings his axe at you. You dodge and get ready to fight. Fight occurs [[19]]

As you try to drive around the man. He jumps in front of your car and takes his axe slamming it into your car. It's clear this man won't let you get away. You put your car in park and reach in the back of your car for your pipe wrench as he clearly wants a fight. You obtain a Pipe Wrench This is your weapon You step out of your car ready to fight, but not before telling Zeus to stay as you don't want him to get hurt. You look at this man, standing on your car, grunting at you. At this moment you realize he is not wearing a costume but that the head he has on is his face. Fight occurs [[19]]

You fight the Goatman. He has 10 Skill 12 Stamina You win the fight [[20]] You lose the fight [[21]]

Bleeding from your forehead you see the monster limping. You see your opportunity and swing at his leg. You hit him and attempt to tackle him. He pushes you off with his powerful legs slamming you into the car. He turns and runs into the woods. You know you succeeded in scaring him off. Not taking any chances, you hop in your car. You get in your car [[22]]

You are bleeding all over, this monster clearly knows how to use his axe. You lift the wrench above your head attempting to stop the downwards swing of his axe. He swings so hard your wrench is knocked out of your hands. You stare up at the monster accepting the end, you just wish you could have saved Zeus. You hear his bark as the man with the goat face swings his axe down one final time. Dead End

As you speed out of there you think to yourself, what was that thing? It was clearly like a human but it was also a goat? Zeus reaches over and licks the blood off of your arm. But you know what, maybe it's better you don't know what that goat monster was and why it attacked you. Maybe some things deserve to be left alone. As you drive home you realize your mom is going to have so many questions. The End

You walk down the hallway to the stairs. It is a long staircase going straight up to the second floor. A simple wood handrail leads the way up. You step on the first step and hear a long drawn out creak. Creakkkkkkkk. You look around expecting something to come out of the darkness of the cabin. When you are sure nothing is happening, you continue up the stairs. You are holding onto the railing when you suddenly feel a sharp pinch in your hand. Looking at your hand you see a splinter embedded deep into the middle of your palm. You see that the handrail, which looked fine from afar, was actually damaged in multiple places, almost as if something sharp had shredded it. You attempt to pull out the splinter but give up. It's going to be painful and a little bit harder to wave your wrench around now. Lose 1 stamina You get up to the top of the landing and see that the whole second floor is taken up by a bedroom. In the middle of the room is a king sized bed. At the left of the bed is a small bedside table and on the other side of the room is a massive wooden drawer. Go to the bed [[31]] Go to the drawer [[32]]

You enter the room and come out to a nice, quaint kitchen. Looking around you see a fridge, cabinets, a small gas stove, and a sink. The source of the light you saw from the hallway is a big window over the sink. This must be the window you saw from the porch you think to yourself. In the middle of the kitchen is a small dusty table with chairs next to it, one knocked down on the floor. Look around [[52]]

You lift the tarp to unveil a pile of metal and flesh of some kind. Looking at the metal you realize it's different parts of muscle cars. You even recognize the engine to a Firebird, just like your car. Why would this be here? The flesh looks old and as if it had been there for a long time. Zeus sniffs a piece, yet immediately cowers backwards, scared. "What's wrong boy?" you ask him. He slowly moves backwards away from the center of the pile of metal and flesh. Keep investigating around the log storage [[30]] You recover the tarp and leave the log storage [[27]]

You step back out of the log storage and look around. Go back in the direction you came from around the cabin [[15]] Keep walking around in the opposite direction [[28]]

You continue walking around the cabin and realize you are coming back to the creepy front porch once more. Go to front entrance [[14]] Walk around the cabin [[15]]

You leave the kitchen and come back out to the darkness of the main hallway. Go to the closed door to your left. [[41]] Go to the far end, to the stairs [[23]]

You continue wading through the mess of car parts and weird flesh, Zeus following slowly behind. It is difficult to see where you are walking as the piles get bigger. Suddenly you feel a sharp searing pain on your left foot. Clank! You look down and notice sharp metal claws wrapped around your foot. It's a bear trap. You quickly turn around yelling at Zeus to stop. He realizes something is wrong and runs up to you, ignoring your orders. "It's ok Zeus, I'm ok" , You say, attempting to not scream out in pain. "Go get help buddy. Go to the car and find help." Zeus stares at you sad, not moving from your side Sadly, you stare at Zeus knowing that he won't leave you alone unless you yell at him. "Go Zeus, GOO!" You hell at him, pushing him towards the entrance of the log storage. He whimpers as he slowly walks to the entrance, looking back at you. He gets to the front of the log storage and runs out in the darkness of the night. The darkness seems to creep into the log storage as the time passes. The pain begins to go away, but you know that's not a good thing as you can not feel your leg. You slowly begin fading. As you close your eyes you think to yourself, hopefully Zeus got out of here fine. Dead End

Walking up to the bed you notice the pillows and blankets shredded to pieces. Almost as if an animal had ripped them apart. In the center, untouched, you see two pictures. The first photo is of a lumberjack in front of a cabin. The cabin is really nice, it is made of a beautiful pine and has a big porch. You quickly realize that the cabin in the photo is the cabin you are in right now. The lumberjack is a tall man with a thick beard. You look at the hand of the lumberjack and see he is holding an axe, the same axe the goat monster was holding when he attacked you. Did the monster take the axe from the lumberjack after killing him? Or was the lumberjack actually the goat monster himself? In the bottom right of this photo is a date: 11/16/1964 In the second photo you see the same cabin. But instead of a tall lumberjack you see a feeble man instead. The man has the same beard as the lumberjack but instead of an axe he is holding a walking stick. You notice the man is wearing Vietnam fatigues, he's a veteran, who must have been hurt in the war. In the bottom right of this photo is a date 11/16/1968 Look at the bedside table [[54]] Walk over to the wooden drawers [[32]] Go down back down the stairs [[35]]

You walk over to the drawers and begin opening them one by one. The top one holds a few shirts and pants. You pick them up and see that it is a military fatigue. Closing that drawer you open the next one. This one is a little harder to open. You tug at it and finally it opens. It is clear that it hasn't been opened in a while. In this drawer you find a flannel, made for a man twice your size. The rest of the drawer is filled with similar flannels and jeans. You get to the third drawer and open it. Here you see a hatchet strapped to the bottom of the drawer. You undo the straps and pick it up, admiring it. "Now this is a real weapon." You think to yourself. You obtain a Hatchet This is your new weapon Instead of 2 damage to the enemy you do 3 damage to their stamina each winning roll. You open the final drawer and find an old newspaper. The date read: February 18, 1969 You read the newspaper, where it talks about just regular thing's occuring during that day. A lot of talk about the Vietnam War. But you get to one article that stands out. It reads: "Veteran Disappears, Police looking for any information." It talks about a veteran who recently disappeared. The man is injured in one leg and they are worried as the man lives in Patuxent Forest. They are also worried about him as he has not been fully sane since he came back from the war. You flip the page and continue reading the newspaper. You see another article that stands out. The article talks about how recently dogs have been disappearing. The dog owners recall hearing the screech of a goat. You put back the newspaper and close all the drawers. Walk over to the bed [[31]] Go down back down the stairs [[35]]

As you walk towards the stairs you see something creep out from the shadows. It's the Goatman monster once again. He grunts at you from across the room and he jumps, attacking you. Fight Begins [[38]]

You begin walking around the basement. In the right side of the basement you notice a massive metal cage. You walk up to it and look closely. In the far corner of the cage you see little creatures shivering. Putting your face right up to the cage you can see better, it is an assortment of dogs. They are shivering, clearly out of fear. "It's ok little guys," You attempt to soothe the dogs, "I'm not going to hurt you." You notice a lock on the cage. If you have a key open door [[36]] Go back out the window [[56]] Go to the other side of the room near the stairs [[33]]

Unlocking the cage, you slowly enter. They are still clearly afraid of you as they continue to cower away from you. Zeus slowly approaches the dogs. He makes them more comfortable and they begin to relax. You let them out of the cage and they all look at you, happy, wagging their tails. Once all the dogs are free, you look around and go to other side of the room near the stairs [[33]]

You walk down the stairs and look down the hallway Go towards the entrance at the far end that has light coming from it [[24]] Open the door on your right [[41]]

You fight the Goatman. He has: 10 Skill 12 Stamina You win [[39]] You lose [[57]]

You push the Goatman off of you. Both of you are bleeding severely, in intense pain. You notice the leg injury you gave him earlier is clearly affecting him. You see this as your opportunity and jump on it. Swinging your weapon you cut his leg off. You have won this fight. You swing your axe down, killing off the monster who has been tormenting you. You fall back on your ass exhausted and bleeding. Zeus comes around and licks your wounds. You smile at him, "We did it buddy" Slowly get yourself up and walk up the stairs. This nightmare is over you think to yourself as you get to the top of the stairs and open the door in front of you. Here you see that you are on the first floor of the cabin. You look around and see that you are in a hallway with stairs to your left and an open doorway to your right. But right in front of you is clearly the front door and you just want to get out of here. You step out into the fresh, night air. Looking around it doesn't feel as creepy as it did when you first entered the clearing. You start walking into the wood's and it is a lot easier to see this time, almost as if the moon was guiding you out. You come out of the woods and see right in front of you is your Firebird. It looks more beautiful than it ever has. You get to the car and start it up, checking the car's clock. It reads 1:00. "Oh mom is going to kill me," You say out loud laughing, but that's clearly the last of your problems as you stare at the dent on the hood of your car. The End

You are bleeding all over, this monster clearly knows how to use his axe. You lift your weapon above your head attempting to stop the downwards swing of his axe. He swings so hard your weapon is knocked out of your hands. You suddenly hear barking and look at where it came from. It's a big metal cage. In there you see a ton of dogs staring back at you, with fear. Looking back at the monster you realize there's nothing you can do. Accepting your death, you just wish you could have saved Zeus and those dogs. You hear his bark as the Goatman swings his axe down one final time. Dead End

You open the door and see a set of stairs that goes down into the darkness. You carefully step forwards on to the old wooden step. It creaks with your weight and sags. You slowly walk down and reach the bottom of the stairs. In front of you is a big open basement. The basement is a big space with stone walls. Moon light is coming from a small window at the top of the far left wall. Suddenly to your left something steps out of the shadows. It's the Goatman monster once again. He grunts at you from across the room and he jumps, attacking you. Fight Begins [[42]]

You fight the Goatman. He has: 10 Skill 12 Stamina You win [[43]] You lose [[40]]

Done with this crazy night you walk up the stairs. This nightmare is over you think to yourself as you get to the top of the stairs and open the door in front of you. You step out into the fresh, night air. Looking around it doesn't feel as creepy as it did when you first entered the clearing. You start walking into the wood's and it is a lot easier to see this time, almost as if the moon was guiding you out. You come out of the woods and see right in front of you is your Firebird. It looks more beautiful than it ever has. You get to the car and start it up, checking the car's clock. It reads 1:00. "Oh mom is going to kill me," You say out loud laughing, but that's clearly the last of your problems as you stare at the dent on the hood of your car. The End

As you walk towards the sound of Zeus's barking, you continue feeling around to find your way. Suddenly you fall, tripping on a root. You feel around finding something to pull yourself up. Suddenly you feel a weird object. It was a hoof-like shaped rock attached to a furry tree. A hooved rock? Furry Tree! You scramble away realizing something's not right. The moon peeks out from behind the fog and it shines on the trees. It's a man with the head of a goat. He has a thick beard and a pair of threatening horns on his head. You notice the man has hooved feet, the same shape as the dent on the hood of your car. He is shirtless and has furry legs. In his left hand he is holding a menacing silver axe. You reach over to grab your pipe wrench that fell. You know that this thing was not here to be friendly, he is here to hurt you and you have to defend yourself. Fight starts here [[48]]

You fight the Goatman. He has: 10 Skill 12 Stamina You win [[49]] You lose [[25]]

Bleeding from your forehead you see the monster limping. You see your opportunity and swing at his leg. You hit him and attempt to tackle him. He pushes you off with his powerful legs slamming you into a tree. He turns and runs deeper into the woods. You are in pain as you get up. Rubbing the blood off your forehead you are thankful you saw his damaged leg. Suddenly you remember! Your dog, you have to find him. Hopefully nothing happened to him. You hear his barking and run towards it [[12]]

The Goatman By: Daniel Fornell The year is 1982 and this is the story of Matthew. Matthew is a 17 year old who went to Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. Matthew loves two things in life: His car and his dog. His car is a 1980 Firebird, it is a slick dark gray color with a beautiful red phoenix on the center of the hood. His dog is a delightful boxer named Zeus. Zeus was Matthew's best friend and their favorite activity was to take late night drives. Need a recap of how Gamebooks work and the systems of this book? Go to [[50]] Start the story go to [[1]]

What are Gamebooks? Gamebooks are a version of Choose Your Own Adventure books where you make your own decisions and tell the story yourself. At the bottom of each page there will be two options. Click one of the options to make your decision and it will take you to that page. In this gamebook you also have an inventory. You can pick up a few things during the gamebook that may be important for later, so don't forget them. What makes this book a gamebook is the fight system, my own personalized game system. The fight system runs on a dice based game. You start with: 12 Skill 20 Stamina The way the fighting works is you have two 6 sided dice and you roll them. You add the number from the dice to your skill number. Then you repeat the same process for the enemy. You take those two numbers you get and compare them. If you get a higher number then the enemy, the enemy loses 2 stamina. If he has a higher number then you lose 2 stamina. Then repeat until you either run out of stamina or they run out of stamina. Now you are ready to go, turn to page [[1]]

You press hard on the gas, driving right at the monster. You feel that this situation is clearly crazy and you have to get out of here. But instead of moving out of the way he stands his ground. You aren't going to let up as you drive right into him. But right before you reach him he throws his axe at the windshield. You swerve out of the way knowing if it goes through the window it will kill you. But you quickly realize your mistake and look straight ahead just in time to see that you are driving right into a tree. You just wish you could've saved Zeus. Bang! Dead End

You walk around the kitchen inspecting everything closely. The amount of dust makes it clear that no one has been around in a long time. You try the sink and it sputters. Slowly dark, grayish water begins dripping out. You turn it off. Walking to the other side of the kitchen is a fridge. A sudden damp air hits your face as you slowly open it up. It's clear that this fridge hasn't had power in a long time. Inside you see a soft piece of material. You pick it up and you notice it seems familiar. you have felt this before. You feel Zeus rub against your leg and it hits you, your holding fur. You drop it. Fur? Who keeps fur drying in their fridge? What the hell! You quickly close the fridge, backing up. Keep walking around the kitchen [[53]] Leave kitchen from the door you came from [[29]]

You continue looking around the kitchen. You step over one of the knocked down chairs. Opening the cabinets you don't see anything in them except a few spider webs. Careful not to step on Zeus's tail, you move around him. You notice he is sniffing at a specific cabinet at floor level. Crouching down you open up the cabinet. In it is a bunch of fruit: Blueberries, bananas, and apples. "Of course you were sniffing here," You say to Zeus. "These are all foods you love" You pick up a banana and peel it, feeding it to Zeus. You bend down to pick up a few blueberries and notice something shiny behind the fruit. Reaching deep into the cabinet you grab it and look at it. It's a silver key. You put it in your pocket hoping it will be useful for later. Add key to inventory. Looking around you're pretty sure there's nothing left to see in the kitchen. Leave kitchen from the door you came from [[29]]

You turn towards the bedside table. On the table there's a few pieces of paper. You pick up the paper. The title of the first piece of paper reads "Patuxent Research Refuge". Reading through the paper you see that it's a scientific paper from the nearby mysterious research facility. It talks about how they did trials on goat's. These trials were to test a muscle strengthening drug that they had created. They were using the Maryland farm lands and had been kidnapping goats for their trials. It didn't say anything about whether or not it worked. The second piece of paper was an official looking document. Reading through this paper you see it is a document from the North Tact Military Base. "Military base?" You haven't heard anything about a military base in the nearby area? You continue reading You see that this paper describes a different kind of research. They were testing the strength of military cars. These cars were going to be used for transportation in the Vietnam War. You see that they had been using nearby farm animals as testing for how protective these cars would be to their passengers. They would put the animals in the car's and shoot, explode, burn, and chemical attack the cars and see how much the cars and the animals inside could survive. "How disgusting" You thought to yourself, "This government is truly awful." Finally you get to the bottom of the document which has a long note scribbled down on it. It says how they need to be careful because some safety officials from OSHA were coming to check on the welfare of the base. This means that they have to hide the human testing they have been doing. At a loss for words, you put the papers back down. Walk over to the wooden drawers [[32]] Go down back down the stairs [[35]]

Done with this crazy night you walk up the stairs. This nightmare is over you think to yourself as you get to the top of the stairs and open the front door in front of you. You step out into the fresh, night air. Looking around it doesn't feel as creepy as it did when you first entered the clearing, especially with nine dogs jumping all around you. You start walking into the wood's and it is a lot easier to see this time, almost as if the moon was guiding you out. You come out of the woods and see right in front of you is your Firebird. It looks more beautiful than it ever has. You open the back seat and let all the dogs hop in, you're not going to just leave them behind. You get in the front seat and start it up, checking the car's clock. It reads 1:00. "Oh mom is going to kill me," You say out loud, laughing, because that's clearly the last of your problems as you look in your back seat at all the new friends you have picked up. The End

You lift Zeus back out the window, and follow him out. It's difficult as the window is high but Zeus helps by pulling your shirt. You finally get out and wipe yourself off. and continue walking around the building. Walking around the building you get to the back of the cabin. Behind the cabin is a massive log storage. This is clearly there to keep the logs dry and used for regular storage. Inside you notice a huge blue tarp, like the one you use to cover your car during bad weather. Look under tarp [[26]] Leave the log storage [[27]]

You are bleeding all over, this monster clearly knows how to use his axe. You lift your weapon above your head attempting to stop the downwards swing of his axe. He swings so hard your weapon is knocked out of your hands. Accepting your death, you just wish you could have saved Zeus. You hear his bark as the Goatman swings his axe down one final time. Dead End