When you last left your intrepid choose-your-own-adventurer, he was rooting out heresy in the Nabootian Church. Now that that's done, it's time to fix the scimitar above the mantel in my papal estate and embark upon another adventure, this time some place a little less humid.
The new quarry: the abominable snowman, or Yeti. The branches of this particular adventure are longer in general than those of The Jewels of Nabooti, ie, there are far fewer instant deaths (although this can be frustrating when you go make sound decisions for several pages only to fall down the mountain ten pages in). In fact, most of the "bad" endings are simply endings in which you don't achieve your goal of finding the Yeti: you refuse a Nepalese diplomat's help, and you can't fund your mission; refuse the Yeti's offer to abandon the world for Shangri-La, and you're plopped (by the same diplomat no less) on the first flight out of Kathmandu).
The theory that the last-page ending is canon may need to be revised, since this one involves being stuffed onto an airplane unceremoniously. To paraphrase one of the freedmen at Trimalchio's banquet, laecasein dico ("fuck it, I say"). Success in this adventure takes two primary forms: the enlightenment achieved when one abandons the world and enters the higher realm of the Yeti, or the fame and wealth achieved by showing off your snapshots of the Yeti. I choose the photos and a pleasant flight back to my stronghold. To hell with Shangri-La; I've got a scimitar to wield.
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