A Sea of Troubles

It's taken a good deal longer than expected, but at last I'm returning to Gary Chalk and David Kerrigan's Prince of Shadows duology. Given that, in Lone Wolf style, having successfully completed the first book would give my character an additional Street Skill, it might be advisable to have another go at Mean Streets rather than move on to the second book, Creatures from the Depths, but I've never actually attempted Creatures, even though I've owned it for longer than I have Streets, and I think it's about time I actually gave it a go.

To recap the premise for anyone who's not familiar with the series and didn't just read the playthrough of the first book linked in the previous paragraph, my character is Prince Edrix, heir to the throne of Salos, but keeping a lowish profile since my uncle Luko seized power following the not-at-all-suspicious incineration of my parents. The 'ish' is because the identity I've assumed so as to reduce the risk of my suddenly experiencing a severe bout of spontaneous combustion is that of an actor, so I have been making public appearances, just not as myself. Also because I recently joined the Resistance who seek Luko's overthrow, and played a pivotal role in an act of civil disobedience designed to strengthen public opinion against the usurper. And on account of my not being very good at concealing the birthmark which identifies me as the missing-presumed-fried Prince.

Anyway, that's me in plot terms. As regards stats, I'm...
Strength: 20 (owing to the quirks of the character generation set-up, this is both the minimum possible score and the most likely one)
Princely Skills: High Tongue, Persuasion
Street Skills: Streetfighting, Gutter Speak
Randomness determined what proportion of my Skills came from each category, and of the three Street Skills I picked last time round, Orientation seemed the best one to drop, as the description indicates it to relate to the streets at ground level, and the description on the back of the book suggests that I'm going to be spending more time in subterranean warrens than urban sprawl.

The adventure commences with my death in combat. Well, my character's character's death in combat: I'm playing the villain in the play currently being performed by the troupe, and tonight's performance has just reached the climactic fight scene. During the curtain call I see that the audience includes Hannuk, the leader of the resistance, who silently indicates that he wants to speak with me.

Master Melfi, the leader of the troupe, invites all players to a celebratory drink at a local tavern, and indicates that he can pay some of us tonight. My funds are pretty low right now, so if this adventure calls for any significant expenditure, accompanying my fellow performers might be the better option, but on this occasion I prioritise finding out what prompted Hannuk to seek me out.

A brief exchange of words with the Resistance leader allows me to set up a proper meeting with him, while still giving me time to show my face at the tavern and get a share of the funds being shared out. I don't loiter once I have the money, but head off to the arranged rendezvous.

Along the way, I cross the path of one of the barbarian mercenaries Luko employs to help keep the populace subdued. Ducking into a nearby alleyway could raise suspicion, so I try to swagger past like somebody who has nothing to fear from those in authority. Alas, he's looking for an opportunity to rough someone up, and I have no choice but to fight. At least I get to strike first - perhaps I can get the death spiral built into the combat system to work in my favour this time round.

The fight includes quite a bit of swinging and missing on both sides, and a couple of lucky swipes on the part of my opponent bring my Strength perilously low, but I scored a few more blows than he did, so the trouble he was looking for turns out to be more than he could handle. Still, I'd probably have been better off fleeing at the earliest opportunity - I just forget that self-preservation isn't treated as a vice in Prince of Shadows. There's still a chance that the enemy will wound me as I disengage, but the rules aren't as disparaging about beating a strategic retreat as in some other gamebook series.

Proceeding to the harbour, I join Hannuk and several other Resistance men in a boat, and after rowing (hopefully) beyond earshot of any lurking secret policemen, informants or paparazzi, Hannuk explains that we need to take action because Luko has arranged a politically advantageous marriage. If it goes ahead, he'll add a sheen of legitimacy to his rule and gain allies able to provide him with a lot more manpower for oppressing his subjects.

A fast-moving boat approaches, and turns out to be crewed by more of Luko's hired thugs. Aware that flight is not an option, Hannuk tries to convince them that we're just fishermen, out on the water so late because we were delayed by the need to make repairs to our nets. One of the goons boards us, missing his footing in the darkness, and randomness determines that while sprawling in the nets he becomes aware of the weapons concealed beneath them, but has the presence of mind not to raise the alarm while he's vulnerable. I twig what he's up to and, lacking the Skill that could help here, quietly warn Hannuk that the game is up, also causing a little disorder by seizing the halberd with which our vessel has been grappled. We cannot escape, though, and combat is soon joined.

Rather confusingly, the text tells me that my opponent gets first strike, and then indicates that I get first strike unless I want to exchange the halberd for a sword. It also says that the barbarians are all armed with spears, yet my opponent wields a two-handed sword. Oh, and as far as I can tell, my chances of being able to strike a blow would improve from nonexistent to mediocre if I were to fight bare-handed rather than hanging on to the halberd. A slim chance is better than no chance, and I only need survive for two rounds of combat before something occurs to change the state of play, so I'll drop the halberd. Even if I manage to hit my enemy, it'll only marginally reduce the likelihood of his being able to wound me, but a couple of per cent could make all the difference between living and dying.

My punch misses, his stab does not (and would not have done even if I had landed the blow). Thanks to the damage I sustained in the earlier fight, that's enough to finish me off. If I'd run away from that earlier fight, I might have survived. And then again, I might not. Escape was not an option during the two rounds preceding whatever would have happened next, and if my enemy's second attack had also proved successful, that would have been enough to kill me even if I'd started the fight at full Strength.

I think before I next attempt either of these books I might modify my gamebook manager, so at the end of the first round of any combat, I get a reminder that flight is an option.

You're Always Stronger When You're on Your Own

Having found Eye of the Dragon tedious, Blood of the Zombies tiresome and unplayable, and the start of The Port of Peril sloppy and unengaging, I was not particularly enthusiastic when Ian Livingstone was announced as the author of Scholastic's third previously unpublished FF title, Assassins of Allansia. I was still enough of a completist to buy a copy when I encountered it for a reasonable price online, but couldn't be bothered to try playing it before it came up in the challenge I was running at the Fighting Fantazine forum.

By the time the randomiser picked Assassins, insinuations of impropriety had obliged me to cease competing in the challenge, but I was still playing the books as they came up. As it no longer mattered how I fared compared to the participants who were still in the running, and I knew I'd eventually wind up playing the book for this blog, I decided to use my challenge-adjacent attempt at the book to explore options. Inadvisable-looking choices sometimes turn out to be the safest course of action in Sir Ian's books, so I checked out the consequences of risky-looking decisions until they got my character killed (which didn't take long), thereby learning a few things not to do when playing the book here. And also finding traces of the same kind of carelessness that had soured me on Port, which didn't make me any more well-disposed towards Assassins.

When Assassins came up in the following year's challenge I went with a similar, though slightly more cautious approach, avoiding everything I already knew to be harmful with no apparent benefit, skipping a fight in which I didn't fancy my chances (in the hope of learning something more helpful than 'combat against disease-ridden monstrosities can prove lethal when you have a lousy Skill score') and going on to discover some situations in which pushing my luck paid off (plus one that ultimately doomed me thanks to that dismally low Skill). Much of the book remains unknown to me, but I'm not going in completely blind.

My character is another down-on-his-luck adventurer, sufficiently low on funds to have accepted a life-threatening challenge - spending a month on the purportedly lethally inhospitable Snake Island - in the hope of winning just 20 Gold Pieces. Two days in, I've encountered a variety of unpleasant creepy-crawlies, found a degree of shelter in a dilapidated hut, and been only moderately successful in my search for food. Things are about to become a bit more challenging, though, so I'd better determine my stats, allocating dice now I have some indication of the importance of a decent Skill score.
Skill 12
Stamina 15
Luck 9
The rules also claim that I have 10 portions of Provisions and one of the potions that used to be part of the standard starting set-up, which is somewhat at odds with the emphasis on foraging for food in the early stages of the adventure. Okay, ten meals aren't exactly a month's supply of food, but the implication is that I have nothing to eat rather than just not enough to last me the duration.

Anyway, ambiguous alimentation is not a priority right at the start of the adventure. It's night, and I've just woken up in response to the sound of somebody attempting to get into the hut. They seem to be trying to be furtive, which (along with the blatant clue provided by the book's title) suggests to me that my uninvited visitor does not have my best interests at heart, so I quietly get up and lurk in wait.

It's too dark to see anything, but a momentary draught indicates that the door opens, and a floorboard creaks to confirm that the not-as-stealthy-as-intended intruder has entered the building. Somehow, despite being pretty much destitute (and the rules and background say nothing about my having any money at all), I have the option of tossing a coin on the floor, and since the alternative is speaking, thereby giving away exactly where I am, I go with the attempted distraction. It's definitely before breakfast, which is apparently the best time for impossible things.

Paying no attention to the sound of the coin, the new arrival launches what sounds like a pretty vicious attack on my bedding. I swing my sword at where the sounds indicate the blanket-butchering brigand to be, and hear a cry of pain that indicates the sheet-stabber to be a man. A fight ensues, my opponent's low Skill belying the text's assertion that he is 'skilful' and 'agile', and I kill him with ease.

Reluctant to spend what remains of the night with a dead assassin, I exit the hut and bed down on the beach. Nothing tries to eat me, and eventually it gets light enough that I can go back indoors and take a look at my unsuccessful assailant. He looks a bit stereotypical, and has a lot of knives and a silver pendant with a scorpion etched on it. I take the pendant and dagger, and don't bother searching the body more thoroughly because the only other noteworthy item he possesses is what started my first character's terminal decline.

It's time to start searching for food, and I take a Stamina penalty because the fish I caught yesterday didn't provide sufficient nutrition. This suggests to me that going fishing again is not the best way to go about seeking sustenance, and I begin searching the island for something to eat. Before long I discover a bush with red berries on it, which I ignore because red is a sure-fire indicator that fruit is poisonous. Except in tomatoes. And raspberries and strawberries. And cherries, currants and apples... All right, so there are plenty of exceptions, but some red berries are toxic, and my first character confirmed that these are such a variety.

Moving on, I catch sight of a dead tree on which a skeletal hand hangs from a nail. This hand throttled my first character to death when he took an interest in it, so today I leave it alone and keep going. A little later I become aware of a foul smell, which presages an attack by... well, the text calls it a Decayer, but previously in FF that name has been used for a type of plague-bearing skeletal entity, whereas this thing is bigger, blobbier and greener. It's not even the first time that Ian Livingstone has used an established name for a whole new type of monster (with a name that starts with a 'D' and ends in '-er'), though previously he was only contradicting himself.

This is the fight that my second character evaded. Given the author of the book, there is a distinct possibility that killing the Decayer is the only way to acquire some essential item, so as I have a more respectable Skill this time round, I'll risk going into battle and find out exactly how this Decayer differs from the more familiar variety, and whether or not I can get anything (other than some loathsome ailment) from it.

Well, it has a higher Skill and does more damage than Decayers as we know them, so it would have absolutely annihilated Mister Low-Skill, but it appears not to have any infectious or contagious diseases, so while I take quite a beating, I don't think the fight is going to have any long-term adverse consequences (beyond my having lost half my Stamina and probably lacking any means of restoring it).

Close by is the Decayer's lair, which is little more than a ring of stones. One of them has been carved to resemble an eye, so I pick it up in case it has the ability to dispel illusions, remembering that at least a couple of the author's earlier works make possession of an item with such a property the only way to avoid undeath. And it's actually cursed and drains my Luck. Well played, Sir Ian.

Continuing on my way, I reach a clifftop. Carved stone steps lead down to the beach below, where a cave mouth is visible. While I could just head straight down, I also have the option of keeping watch on the cave mouth, which could alert me to the presence of a (doubtless hostile) occupant, but is equally likely to result in my attracting the attention of something nasty up here. I go with the surveillance option anyway, and nothing goes in or out of the cave, but a humanoid brute with no skin above the neck (known as a Flesh-Head) emerges from the nearby vegetation and charges at me. I dodge it with ease, and the stupid beast goes straight over the cliff and falls to its death.

Now I descend to the beach, where I loot a ruby from the corpse. Proceeding to the cave, I see a coil of rope hanging on a peg just inside, a large number of bats hanging from the roof, and what looks like a wooden cupboard further in. On my previous attempt at this book, I suspected that the 'cupboard' was actually a coffin with a vampire in it (in part because of the bats, and also because there are Vampires in at least half a dozen of the author's earlier gamebooks), but as I was in 'take chances in the hope of learning' mode, I investigated anyway, and the cupboard was in fact a cupboard.

Searching the cave provides me with a variety of items. Usually, knowing that gamebook authors have a habit of throwing the odd harmful object into any assortment of pick-ups, I wouldn't have risked grabbing everything, but my previous attempt's 'play to learn, not to win' approach paid off here: nothing has any immediate baleful effect (one might do something lethal later, but leaving behind the wrong thing is just as likely to doom me, so until I know what's what, I'm taking a chance either way), and enough of these items come with Luck bonuses to fully counteract the hit I took from the cursed stone.

Once I have everything, I head back out onto the beach and search that, acquiring a silver coin and a rusty knife. I also catch sight of a barrel floating in the sea but held in place by a chain. Investigating it means another fight, but I'm pretty sure that on this occasion the benefits outweigh the costs, especially for a character who has a decent Skill, so I swim out for a closer look. A Giant Sea Snake attacks me, wounding me once before I kill it. The barrel contains a verdigrised shield, which I add to my inventory before returning to shore and climbing back up the cliff.

I am heading back towards the hut, even though I don't think I've succeeded in finding any food yet (the uncertainty is because of the Worm Paste I picked up in the cave, which might turn out to be edible, however unappetising it sounds), when a Fire Dragon attacks. Previously I fled this encounter, as the Giant Sea Snake had taken me down to my last Stamina point, and there was no real chance of a character with a Skill as low as mine beating a Dragon in combat. Indeed, I couldn't even survive a fight against the inferior opponent I encountered while hiding from the Dragon. This time round I'm willing to risk confronting the Dragon, in case it turns out to be unavoidable on the 'true path'.

It turns out that the Dragon wasn't attacking - it hadn't even seen me, and was just coming in to land in the clearing where I was. But now it has noticed me, and breathes fire in my direction, so it's a good thing I have that shield. Mostly good: in this gamebook the laws of thermodynamics work, so while the shield repels the flames, it also heats up and gives me a burn on the arm.

The Dragon swoops in to land, and I attack. Figuring that my sword is unlikely to get through its scales (which I don't recall having been an issue in FF before now), I take a swing at one of its outstretched claws, and slice the creature's foot in half. This is enough to convince the Dragon to seek easier prey, and it flies off. Aware that Dragon's claws can be turned into fancy weapons, I take the partial appendage I lopped off, hoping to be able to sell it to an armourer.

On the way back to the hut I see that a swarm of bees have just left their nest, which is located in a tree, and try climbing up in the hope of getting some honey. I manage to eat a little, restoring some of the Stamina I've lost, but the sound of the swarm heading back suggests that hanging around for a second helping might cause me to lose more than I've gained, so I climb down before the bees get back.

Moored on the beach near the hut is the boat that brought me here. Its Captain doesn't look too happy, and with his eyes he gestures towards a figure lurking in the shadow of a rock and readying a bow and arrow. The archer fires, and the text asks if I have a shield. There was no indication that I lost or discarded the shield after the dragon heated it up, so I'm going with yes. Thus, I deflect the shots fired, and my attacker, a Dark Elf Priestess, draws a sword and attacks. While a more formidable opponent than the knife-wielding rogue I fought last night, she's still not much of a threat, and I only take one wound before killing her.

With her dying words she indicates that she belongs to a guild, and is confident that another member of it will kill me. She wears a scorpion pendant identical to the one I took from the man with the knives (not the same one, even though that's what the text says before a later reference to 'the pendants' clarifies that there are multiple pendants of the same type rather than one pendant magically relocated to a new wearer - and I infer from what others have said about the book that collecting a full set of these pendants is essential for success, so that ambiguity is mighty sloppy).

The Captain is chained to the mast of his boat, so I free him and ask what's afoot. He reveals that Lord Azzur, ruler of Port Blacksand, has put a price on my head, holding me responsible for the death of Zanbar Bone, and he's set a whole guild of assassins on my trail. Having carelessly mentioned that he'd brought me to Snake Island, the Captain was arrested, tortured, and forced to bring the Dark Elf here. Initially the assassins came out singly, drawing lots to see who got the first stab at killing me, and then who'd be second to take a shot at it, but they're likely to be dispatched en masse before long. During the sea crossing the Dark Elf mentioned one other guild member, Garanka Vassell, who has gold teeth and a dent in his skull, and favours decapitating his targets, but no information on the other would-be assassins is available.

While it's possible that something I have yet to reach in The Port of Peril clarifies the set-up, right now the revelation that Azzur serves/served Zanbar Bone seems like a big retcon. Back in City of Thieves the only connection between Blacksand and Bone was that the man who knew how to kill Zanbar lived in the city, and the biographical information on Azzur in Titan had him as an acolyte of the Khulian god of storms. I suppose it's possible that Ian Livingstone always had such a connection in mind, and just never mentioned it, but since a lot of discussion of Assassins has focused on how its ending ties in with but contradicts another of his books, I think it equally plausible that this is just another continuity reference thrown in with no thought given to fitting in with established lore.

The Captain concludes his info-dump by saying that we should leave the island at once, before the next assassin arrives, and that a storm is brewing, so we ought not to set sail right now. Resisting the temptation to ask if he used to be a member of The Clash, I decide not to risk getting shipwrecked. The Captain provides some food from his stores, and an uneventful night follows. In the morning he mentions that the boat's tiller is damaged (and he was contemplating setting off without fixing it yesterday?), and wanders off in search of a suitable piece of wood. I somewhat belatedly help myself to the Dark Elf's weapons, and when the Captain is slow to return, I set off to find out what the delay is.

It turns out that he's fallen foul of a Hell's Bloodwort, a carnivorous plant which immobilises its victims with vines. He's probably doomed whatever I do, but I'm more likely to be penalised for abandoning him than killed for trying to save him, so I attack the plant. No combat ensues - I just hack at vegetation until the Captain is free. He dies, so I bury him, evading an attack from the Bloodwort as I do. Then I lose some Stamina for stepping on an ants' nest, find a suitable piece of wood, make the necessary repairs to the boat (incidentally, I've not got to make a decision or had to turn to a new section since choosing to attempt to rescue the Captain) and set sail.

After a while the boat attracts the attention of a pirate ship. Playing dead seems like an idiotic idea when my face is on wanted posters all over the closest pirates' haven, so I discreetly slip overboard and try to remain unobserved. The pirates decide to tow the boat to Port Blacksand and sell it, and I try to climb back on board without attracting any attention. My Luck holds out, and I opt not to risk attracting attention by cutting the tow rope, so the book forces the issue by having the pirates encounter something nasty and take manoeuvres that unsettle the boat until I have to untether it before it gets capsized.

That 'something nasty' is a Kraken, which pulls the pirate ship into the depths. Before the leviathan can take an interest in me, I set sail, choosing not to head for Port Blacksand because of the whole 'wanted poster/hefty reward/population of low-lifes who'd cheerily knife me in the back even if there weren't a massive financial incentive for doing so' thing.

I make it to the Red River estuary without incident, and head for a nearby boatyard to try and sell the boat. I find one man there, varnishing a boat. Upon catching sight of me, he summons a couple of dogs, seemingly for protection rather than to attack. The book gives me the option of making enquiries about Vassell, but I'm not sure that name-dropping an assassin would be a particularly smart thing to do, so I just ask the man if he'd like to buy a used boat. He seems to find my face vaguely familiar (probably from one of Azzur's posters), and definitely recognises the vessel when inspecting it. When he asks how it came into my possession. I tell him of the Captain's fate, and he concedes that my account may be true, but only offers 20 Gold Pieces in case I'm lying. I can accept the offer or try haggling, and I'm not sure which option is more likely to raise his suspicions. Asking for more causes him to claim that he had been offering a fair price (though a moment ago he'd said he wasn't going to give me much), and he now refuses to give me more than 15 Gold. It's that or nothing, so I take it.

There's a shop close by, so I head for that, but find that it's displaying one of those wanted posters. Well, unless I want to decide that the rules were right about those don't-fit-the-narrative Provisions, I need some food, so I risk going in anyway. The proprietor recognises me, but seems amused rather than fearful or avaricious, so I don't bother claiming to be someone else or fleeing. That leaves me with a choice: while I could buy Provisions as intended, I also have the option of asking if he has any Elven Boots for sale, and unprompted seeking of an oddly specific item has been an essential course of action in at least one of Ian Livingstone's books before now.

I ask about the boots, and have to Test my Luck, rolling badly, so there are none in stock. That may have doomed me, but I'll buy Provisions anyway. Choosing to do so causes me to tell the storekeeper my tale, and he seems sympathetic, offering to sell me some food and a Bag of Everything that will make whatever possessions I might be lugging around seem weightless. Seems like a good deal, so I pay up, and get one meal's worth of food and the bag, which reduces my encumbrance enough to provide a redundant Skill bonus.

Again I have the option of asking about Vassell, and since the shopkeeper already knows and seems not to care about the price on my head, there's no obvious risk in doing so here. Indeed, it turns out to be a good thing to do, as it was Vassell who put up the poster, and the friendly reception I got was in part a reaction to his obnoxious behaviour while here. Introducing himself as Harold Cornpepper (going by the surname, probably a relative of the Ian Livingstone look-alike shopkeeper from Eye of the Dragon), the store owner tells me details of the trap Vassell wanted him to help set up for me, and encourages me to buy some of the magical items that are for sale here.

I check out the merchandise, which includes four items of potential interest. Well, three, as I'm at full Skill already, so the bracelet that gives a hefty bonus to that won't benefit me, but as Harold offers a 'four for the price of three' deal, and I remember that in one of the author's previous books an item that (potentially unhelpfully) added to Skill had additional benefits, I get the lot anyway.

My business concluded, I head east, aware that somewhere within half an hour's walk of here, Vassell is lurking in wait, anticipating a signal from Harold. Before long I catch sight of a small man, dressed mostly in green, dozing beside a tree. Stopping to speak with him, I discover that he's actually a disguised Goblin, and an accomplice of his up in the tree drops a weighted net on me. Well, before now being ambushed by a Goblin in an Ian Livingstone book has led to the acquisition of something helpful or essential, and there's no way I can fail the Skill roll to extricate myself from the trap, so I don't feel too bad about having been fooled.

Escaping with ease, I have no trouble defeating the Goblins in battle. Their belongings consist of a little gold, half a dozen opals, and a torn notice relating to Baron Sukumvit's Trial of Champions - or possibly an alternative universe's variant thereof, given that this one starts at the end of the month rather than on the first, and the wording of what I can read implies that somebody is expected to win the challenge rather than stressing the unlikelihood of any contestant's surviving, which has always been a prominent aspect of the marketing before now.

Continuing on my way, I see a hooded woman who's sharpening a stick. A little oddly, she carries a quiver of arrows but no bow. She greets me, and I respond in kind. If she's one of the assassins, she's not likely to just let me walk past, so I might as well confront her face to face rather than offer an opportunity to stake me in the back. She claims to be a fletcher, taking some of her wares to sell, and asks if I want to buy any arrows. As I do have a bow, I decide to get some more ammo. The feathers in the arrows' tails are all black, which the woman explains away by saying they come from chickens, to ensure that their flight is true. Well, some chickens do have black plumage, but by no means all, so that's not the most reassuring of explanations. Especially as chickens aren't renowned for flying well.

I ask the woman if she's heard anything about assassins, and the question seems to trouble her. She claims not to have any relevant information, and I catch sight of a silver necklace around her throat. My hand goes to the hilt of my sword, and she insists that she's not an assassin, claiming to be unarmed apart from her knife and arrows. Still suspicious, but not wanting to attack an innocent, I check that she's not hiding anything in her cloak. No weapons, but when she offers to shake hands I suspect sorcerous skulduggery, and go for my sword after all.

Good call. Accepting that she hasn't fooled me, the woman reveals that she's actually an assassin, and implies that she was responsible for the recent fatal 'accident' experienced by the fletcher whose wares she is carrying. Drawing two concealed swords, she attacks me, and I make short work of her with my not-so-hidden sword.

Ambiguity regarding the number of arrows she was carrying prompts me to check what would have happened if I hadn't bought any, and it turns out that the acquisition of treasure from this assassin has been rather messily handled. All the relevant paragraph needed do was say something like, 'If you bought arrows from her, you retrieve the money you paid for them. If you didn't, you may take the six arrows she was carrying.' Instead, she's carrying the same amount of gold regardless of whether or not I paid her, and I can loot arrows from her even if I already bought them.

Resuming my journey, I catch sight of a building, indicated by a sign to be Tall Tom's Tavern. This is where Vassell instructed Harold to tell me he'd be staying when outlining his trap, and after spying on the place for a short time I catch sight of a crossbow-toting man with gold teeth and a dented skull at one of the windows. Well, unless that's an illusion, Vassell is rather less competent an assassin than I'd expected him to be. I was expecting him to be lurking somewhere on the way to the tavern, planning to take me by surprise, but no, he's where he instructed Cornpepper to tell me he was going to be.

One of the things that earned him Harold's enmity was taking stuff from the shop without paying for it. I decide to let him have a free sample of the late fletcher's wares - ideally right between the eyes. My shot isn't quite as lethal as I'd hoped it might be, but Vassell gets it in the neck, and comes charging out of the tavern, sword held high. In the ensuing combat the dice do not favour me, and in spite of my Skill advantage I only survive by using Luck to reduce the effectiveness of the last hit that Vassell scores on me.

In addition to taking the inevitable pendant and what little cash Vassell has on him, I also help myself to the assassin's chain mail. It provides another unusable Skill bonus, but might also protect me from a surprise attack by a less dopey assassin. In the hope that food and/or rest might restore some of the Stamina I lost in the fight, I then enter the tavern.

The lone customer inside averts his gaze from me, and the proprietor complains that I killed Vassell before he paid for his room, but offers to give me some advice if I settle the bill. It's for less than I took from the dead man, so I can afford it, and the alternative is just to leave, so I might as well see if there's any benefit to be gained from coming in here. Paying up, I learn a little more about the late Vassell's odious personal habits, and am advised to consult the man seated at a nearby table, who is apparently a seer. It's that or a blind choice of direction, so I opt to find out if the seer can advise me on where to go.

Sidd the Seer tells me he can only answer one question because he only had one egg for breakfast. Whatever. I have the choice of asking where Lord Azzur is, or seeking information about the next assassin on my trail. The former question seems unlikely to help me, as what I've inadvertently learned about the ending of the adventure rules out killing Azzur or convincing him to call off the remaining assassins, so I might as well find out what I can about whoever is going to try and kill me next. Sidd's crystal ball shows me a warrior woman with a spear, and he tells me her name, but none of what he reveals seems likely to improve my odds of survival. And now I have to leave, still on the verge of death, because buying food or drink in a tavern just isn't an option, and with no idea which direction won't doom me.

After eating the food I bought from Cornpepper in the hope of postponing my increasingly inevitable-looking demise, I continue in the direction I had been heading, and after a little while I see a table laden with apples, and a sign indicating that they're free to anyone who wants them. What with having a bunch of unprincipled assassins on my tail, I'd be wary of the giveaway even if the author hadn't featured poisoned apples in one (maybe two) of his earlier works. Hoping this isn't some preposterous 'if you don't eat a poisoned apple, the assassin who set them up won't confront you here, so you won't encounter them until they get to Instant Death you in the endgame' set-up, I pass by.

A short distance away is a hut with a sign warning of poisoned apples and indicating that healing potions are sold here. Perhaps the apples weren't the handiwork of one of the assassins, but an enterprising yet unscrupulous tradesperson. Annoyingly, going into the hut is only an option for players who ate an apple. If the sign had been advertising poison antidote, I'd be all right with that limitation, but a healing potion would come in quite handy right now, and I resent being denied the opportunity to get one just for having avoided taking an obvious risk.

Continuing on my way, I reach a point where a tributary joins the river, and see a couple of fishermen arguing about splitting their catch. When they notice me, they at least temporarily forget their squabble, and reach for their swords. I offer to buy the fish, and in addition to getting an insubstantial meal, I wind up with the bucket in which they were being transported. The two men stroll off, now arguing about the money I paid.

A compulsory change of direction follows, sending me in the direction I didn't go after leaving the tavern. Between that and the low stakes of the encounters since I left Tall Tom's, I suspect that I went the wrong way and have missed something vital. Pretty much unavoidable during the first several attempts at one of Ian Livingstone's books, but tiresome all the same.

The trail leads through a wooded area, and the possibility that an assassin might be lurking in ambush puts me on edge. After a while I reach a fork in the path, giving me a choice between proceeding towards a town or a forest. The town has probably been visited by one of Azzur's bill-posters, so going there incurs the risk of encountering numerous reward-seeking opportunists who, while not numbered among the eponymous assassins, will be equally eager to end my life. Besides, it's only a few sentences since the text highlighted the likelihood of an assassin's using the trees for cover, and if that's not a hint... then it's a nasty bit of misdirection. I might as well try to find out which.

There's a stretch of grassland between here and the forest, and while traversing it I catch sight of what looks like a trap - someone lying in the long grass and groaning as if in pain. Well, if it is an assassin, he's not going to fight himself to the death, so I'd better take a closer look. And it turns out that he's a dying woodsman, knifed by a Hobgoblin who failed to find the hidden pocket in which he keeps his gold. He invites me to take the money before he expires, and I do so.

Continuing on my way, I see a side turning to the east, along which the assassin of whom Sidd notified me is charging to the attack. Maybe I haven't missed anything important after all. She hurls a spear, but I still have that shield, and deflect it. Unruffled, she draws two long knives. I have the option of throwing the spear back at her, but choose to rely on my own sword. A sudden leap enables her to get in the first blow unopposed, but once I'm able to fight back, I have no trouble defeating her.

She's wearing a golden armband in the shape of a snake, which the text compels me to take along with the scorpion pendant and what money she has. I do at least get to choose whether to wear the armband or just sling it into my pack. In the hope that it might have healing properties, I risk slipping it onto my arm. I feel a burning sensation, but there's no immediate Stamina loss, so I tough it out. Once my system has assimilated the band's power, I get a boost to all three stats, and while that's another wasted Skill bonus, the added Stamina and Luck are both welcome.

Confronted with another choice of direction, I opt to continue towards the forest. A pack of wolves intercepts me, and I kill its leader with ease, putting the others to flight. No further interruptions occur until I reach the edge of the forest, at which point a little man standing on a branch hails me. He advises me not to enter the Forest of Fiends, so either he's trying to trick me or there is something seriously wrong with the author's grasp of Allansian geography. I'm nowhere near far enough east to be close to the Forest of Fiends (besides which, I'd have had to pass Stonebridge and Firetop Mountain to reach the right region, and can you seriously see Ian Livingstone passing up a chance to namedrop either of those locations?)

The man offers to give me some advice in return for food, and the book asks if I want to hand over some Provisions, not acknowledging the possibility that I might have none. Even if I take it that the rules were right about my starting with 10 meals' worth (and thus that the whole business about needing to search for food on Snake Island was misleading), it's far from certain that a player wouldn't have already eaten them all by this stage. Owing to the uncertainty, I've only eaten the portion I bought from Cornpepper (and consequently I've been stumbling around with a single-digit Stamina ever since fighting the Decayer), but a character with a middling Skill could easily have felt the need to consume almost a dozen meals' worth of healing in order to survive this long.

Checking the section covering accepting the man's offer, I see that it requires me to hand over two portions of Provisions, so unless I've missed numerous opportunities to buy food along the way, I must have had some at the start after all for it even to be possible to pay for his advice. All right, then, I will go with the premise that the rules were right after all, and the urgency of the foraging at the start was exaggerated. A single sentence early on, indicating the advisability of living off the land where possible so as to eke out the food I had for the duration of the challenge, would have cleared up the confusion - though there would still be the failure to acknowledge that the Provisions provided might not have lasted this long.

Anyway, since I peeked at the section and have the necessary resources, I'll listen to the man's advice. He tells me that he's a Woodling, and lives in the trees because the forest contain so many dangerous creatures at ground level. After repeating his warning to stay out of the forest, he recommends that I head for the nearby town of Kaad, as a trapper mentioned that Lord Azzur is visiting there. That strikes me as being akin to jumping out of the frying pan and into the blast furnace, but I suspect that defying Sir Ian's 'logic' will result in a rapid demise, so east to Kaad I go.

Heading east around the forest, I catch sight of Kaad and a large spider drops onto me. As Luck would have it, the arachnid is not venomous, and I fling it away without sustaining any harm. I proceed towards Kaad, and a horse-drawn carriage with a snobbish-looking female passenger emerges from the gates. Probably not one of the assassins, but it may be advisable to try and speak with her or her driver anyway.

The woman recognises me from the posters, but indicates that she neither likes nor believes Azzur. She lets me know that he is no longer in Kaad, but has set off to Fang for the annual 'watch a bunch of doomed fighters enter Deathtrap Dungeon one at a time, and never find out what unpleasant fate befalls them' celebrations. She then offers me a lift part of the way towards Fang, and as the book seems to be operating on the premise that meeting with Azzur is the best way to resolve the situation (I guess it might be if I could eliminate the price on my head by killing him, but the author's clearly way too besotted with the character to ever let him die), and going into Kaad always looked like a stupid idea, I accept.

After an uneventful journey, I am dropped off outside a hostelry, where I can get a room for the night, unless I'd rather sleep outside and risk getting mauled by nocturnal predators. It's possible that such predators would include one of the remaining assassins, but Vassell has already shown that assassins are not averse to staying in establishments like this one, so I'm just as likely to encounter the next of Azzur's hired killers in here.

No, it's a quiet night, and breakfast restores a little Stamina before I continue on my way, following the proprietor's directions towards Fang. Before long I reach a jetty on the southern bank of the River Kok. Close by is a hut, and a man dozes in a boat. I was advised to take the ferry, but I might as well check for lurking assassins before I do anything else. A quick peek inside the hut reveals it to contain a dead man with a dagger in his back. Between getting stabbed and expiring he had time to write a short message in his blood, implicating someone named Zeedle in his murder.

On the pier there's a bell to ring for the ferryman, so I use that to wake the man in the boat, who introduces himself as Zeedle the Ferryman, and advises me to make use of his services, as the river is populated by carnivorous Snapperfish. I don't pay the Ferryman - well, not unless a punch in the face counts. While he's stunned from the blow, I check and find his scorpion pendant, which I add to my collection before throwing its owner into the river. He wasn't lying about those Snapperfish.

I row myself across the river and continue towards Fang. A muscular man with a face-concealing helmet and a scorpion pendant accosts me, claiming to be the ultimate assassin, and I need to survive five rounds of combat against him. With decent rolls and judicious use of Luck I could kill him in less time than that, but the book doesn't acknowledge that possibility, and after the fifth round concludes, my opponent scores a blow on me by authorial fiat. It's the last wound he gets to inflict, though, as a Barbarian with an eyepatch fells him with a couple of thrown axes.

My rescuer introduces himself as Throm, and explains that he was avenging his brother's death. I tell him why the assassin was trying to kill me, and Throm says that he's planning on entering the Trial of Champions tomorrow, and recommends that I do likewise, as that will give me an opportunity to meet Azzur. This is one of the most idiotic plans ever put forward in all FF, what with Deathtrap Dungeon being a lot more lethal than the assassins, not to mention the fact that there can only be one winner, so even if entering the challenge does get Azzur off my back, it will guarantee that unless Throm or I fall foul of one of the dungeon's deathtraps first, we will eventually have to fight each other to the death. And my character thinks it's a great idea, and grabs the deceased assassin's helmet so nobody will be able to recognise my face from the wanted posters.

Proceeding into Fang, I register for the Trial, undaunted by the warning that my chances of surviving are lower than the odds of making a profit by trading in stocks and shares via a broker who advertises online, and spend the rest of the day resting and recuperating and failing to recover any Stamina because it's not that kind of recuperation.

The following morning I join the other contestants outside Deathtrap Dungeon. There are six of us, and given that they include Throm, it would appear that this is supposed to be the start of the sequence of events that plays out in the gamebook that introduced the Trial. Okay, so the viewpoint character there was taking part for the challenge rather than as part of an ill-advised scheme to avoid a bunch of inept assassins, reached Fang by taking a raft from the Kok estuary, spent several days there before the Trial commenced, and had never met Throm before, but details, details.

Anyway, Baron Sukumvit and Lord Azzur are on a podium, along with a bunch of guards (just like at the start of Deathtrap Dungeon, except for the presence of the podium and Lord Azzur and maybe the guards). I have the option of attacking Azzur, which would almost certainly lead to my getting filleted by all those guards. Based on another complaint fans have raised concerning this book (the unavoidable loss of an item that's required for surviving an essential encounter later on), I'm pretty sure I've missed at least one assassin and am thus doomed anyway, so I could take the opportunity to find out exactly how ignominiously I'd die if I were to try and kill Sir Ian's pet villain, but deliberately failing in that manner does not appeal.

The no-hopers entering the Trial are introduced to the Baron one at a time. When it's my turn, Sukumvit says I should remove the helmet out of respect for his guest. The text gives me the option of refusing for fear of being recognised, but since it's the book that's forced me into this confrontation, not letting Azzur know who I am now that I've finally made it into his presence seems rather perverse.

Once Azzur realises who I am, he asks how many of his assassins I've killed. The question is rapidly amended to how many scorpion pendants I have, which isn't necessarily the same thing - while I've avoided all the situations in which I could lose equipment, I am aware that there are some in the book. Unless each instance of being robbed (or whatever occurs to deprive me of my belongings) specifies that I retain all scorpion pendants regardless, I could potentially kill every assassin but still end up dying at the hands of one of them because I lost concrete proof of having ended their existence. Knifed by Schroedinger's cut-throat.

To draw things out, I am first asked if the number of pendants I have is odd or even. It's odd, which takes me on to the next stage of this silly game, where I learn that I must have missed multiple assassins. Even if the highest total I have the option of giving is above the actual number obtainable (an anti-cheating mechanism Sir Ian has employed before), I'm still at the low end of the range listed.

Yep, at least one assassin survived, and decapitates me while I'm playing 'count the pendants' with Azzur. His Lordship then effectively sentences the triumphant assassin to death by entering them into the Trial of Champions, indicating that if they should somehow win, he will lay claim to the prize money, but allow them to retain 10% of it in addition to the bounty for me. Rather than promptly gutting the tightwad for enforcing such an unfavourable deal, the cretin agrees and joins the queue outside the dungeon entrance.

Sukumvit missed a trick by not charging an entrance fee.

Considering the number of assassins I must have missed, I think it unlikely that my choice of direction after leaving Tall Tom's Tavern was all that caused me to miss out on essential encounters, so I guess the successful route through the book requires players to take some or all of the more blatantly unwise risks I avoided (the pirate ship, Port Blacksand, Kaad). As I observed near the start of this post, with Ian Livingstone books the trick is to identify which inadvisable-seeming choices to take and which to avoid. I now have a few more data points to help with figuring that out, but probably not yet enough.

While a distinct improvement upon the FF books Ian Livingstone wrote for Wizard, Assassins of Allansia is still flawed, and I'm not particularly enthusiastic at the prospect of playing it again at some point in the future. Quite a contrast to how diligently I replayed Return to Firetop Mountain until finally beating it, but that's probably more a reflection of how I've changed over the course of the past quarter-century than an indication of the relative merits of the two books.

The Secret Places Beneath the Surface

Back when I played (and rapidly failed) Andy Holmes' Tunnels & Trolls 'mini solo adventure' The Halls of the Gorgon, I mentioned that it had a sequel, which I also own. There's no actual need to have beaten Gorgon before playing the follow-up, The Hidden Halls of Ogul-Duhr - the introduction indicates that some months have passed since the Gorgon was slain, but does not require the reader to play the adventurer who killed it. Indeed, while there is enough ambiguity to allow for reuse of such a veteran if you have one, the implication is that the player character has never been to the vicinity of the eponymous Halls.

So, I'm an adventurer, low on funds, and currently in a tavern. A stranger approaches, wishing to sell me a map that shows the way to the caves of Ogul-Duhr. When I point out that the Gorgon which inhabited them was killed a little while back, since when the place has been thoroughly looted and, according to rumour, taken over by a band of Orcs, he goes on to say that this map includes details of a secret entrance to lower levels that have yet to be plundered. This convinces me to hand over the money he wants, which suggests that my character isn't particularly smart, so I'll bring back the buffoon who survived Scandal in Stringwater. Equipping him with a sword brings his funds down to just above the cost of the map, which fits the financial set-up indicated by the text quite nicely.

As I make my way to the mountains where the caves are located, a little more information about recent developments in the area is provided. The Orcs who moved in charged treasure-seekers an entrance fee, also demanding their cut of any valuables found in the Halls, but now that the place has been (to their knowledge) comprehensively ransacked, most of them have moved on, so I may be able to get in without their knowledge and avoid having to hand over any money.

Bearing this in mind, I opt to avoid the main entrance and head straight for the secret entrance indicated on the map. Identifying its precise location may be tricky, though - indeed, it is, but not just because the map is imprecise. To find the right place, I must succeed at a Saving Roll based on the average of my Intelligence and Luck, and they add up to an odd number, while the text neglects to specify whether halves round up or down. In most circumstances, that lack of clarity wouldn't matter, but a score of exactly 10 (and the way the rules handle doubles puts the odds of that happening above 1 in 18 but below 1 in 12) could go either way depending on the rounding. 

I get a 6 and a 4. Well, way back in junior school I was taught to round halves to the even number, which in this instance means rounding up, so I narrowly succeed. I find the concealed entrance, and can go through it... or I could act as if I hadn't found it, and probably experience some bother with Orcs in an attempt to gain access to the regions no longer worth checking out. Seriously? Look, Mr. Holmes, if I wanted to not enter the 'hidden halls', I would have done so by not buying the adventure rather than going to all the bother of looking for the way in, scraping through on a tricky roll (at which I only get three tries, according to the text), and then saying, "On second thoughts, nope."

So I go through. A corridor descends into the mountain, at one point passing an opening in the floor. As I have no way of telling how deep it is, and possess no rope, I pass by the hole. The corridor leads to an archway which opens into an unpleasant-smelling chamber. I step through, and the corridor behind me caves in, as if to say, "If you're not going to use the exit option I so graciously provided, I'm going to take it away, so there!" An unsuccessful Saving Roll determines that I take a little damage from debris.

Looking around, I find that I am in a crypt, which contains many stone sarcophagi carved with figures resembling Dwarves. While the corridor by which I entered is now impassable, there is another passage leading north. The stench pervading the air could be an indicator of something undead, so I shan't loiter.

The exit leads to a T-junction, where the roll of a die could subject me to a random encounter, but on this occasion nothing troubles me. Turning east, I have to make another Saving Roll, which I fail exactly like the previous one - right down to the numbers rolled. A Rock Troll bursts through the wall, declaring its intent to kill me, and there's no real chance of my winning a straight fight against an opponent with those stats. A quick check on the capabilities of the spell replicated by my explosive brandy-snaps reveals it to be rather less effective than I'd hoped, so I have to choose between using my sword and almost certainly dying, or throwing a brandy-snap, mildly injuring the troll, and definitely dying. I'll take an infinitesimally tiny chance over zero chance, so I go for my sword... and I die anyway.

Considering the lethality of the 'suitable for starting characters' solo adventures, I find myself increasingly baffled by the existence of Tunnels & Trolls solos designed for higher-level characters.

The Monks Are Troubled and Full of Woe

Scholastic Books' second previously unpublished Fighting Fantasy book was the first 'official' FF by a new-to-the-range author since Spellbreaker. Charlie Higson, better known for The Fast Show and the Young Bond novels, joined the list of FF writers with The Gates of Death, a gamebook that does not have a particularly good reputation in fandom - indeed, more than one reviewer has labelled it the worst book in the series. I wouldn't go that far, given the existence of Blood of the Zombies, but it definitely has its problems.

I've only played it twice prior to this attempt, both times as part of the challenges I ran at the Fighting Fantazine forum earlier this decade, and while I didn't make it to the endgame, I am aware of at least some of the problems with that part of the book, as I had to make a ruling with regard to certain contradictions within the text. If on this occasion I get far enough to have to engage with the inconsistencies, I should be a little better equipped to make a judgement call, as I'll be working from the actual text rather than other people's summary of the issue.

Back in the 1980s I had ill-formed ideas for an epic FF saga ranging all over the world of Titan, the third book of which would be set in the Crucible Islands, a region of Titan about which nothing had been established beyond their name and location. Gates finally provides a little information about the islands, revealing them to be the home of an quasi-religious order of healers known as the Guardians. 

My character is an acolyte there, one of a group chosen to travel to Allansia to help combat an outbreak of demon plague (a plague which causes its victims to transform into demonic entities, not to be confused with Dead of Night's Demon-Plague, which just kills people very nastily). We have a quantity of the only known cure, a plant derivative called smoke-oil, and mean to take it to the Temple of Throff in Allansia, which may somehow be able to duplicate it in sufficient quantities to cure all the afflicted. That is, assuming we can find the Temple, which is hidden in the Invisible City, but the learned folk of Kaynlesh-Ma should be able to pinpoint its location for us. Or they might if we ever got to consult them. Alas, the voyage does not run as smoothly as had been hoped. Our small fleet sinks, and only two of us survive, rescued by a fishing vessel which makes landfall further north than we'd planned to travel, in the rather less scholarly environs of Port Blacksand.

The aftereffects of the turbulent crossing include a Stamina deduction in the very first section of the adventure, so I'd better determine my stats before I start depleting them...
Skill 9
Stamina 18
Luck 8
Marginally below average, but I'm pretty sure that's no worse than on either of my previous goes at the book.

Anyway, the elderly Brother Tobyn and I are the only remaining members of the expedition. We have just ten vials of smoke-oil, a small quantity of gold, and the clothes we wear. No weapons and, by the end of the first paragraph, no stomach contents either.

Brother Tobyn decides that we need to start by getting something to eat. Proceeding to the Fish Market, we find a fishwife offering grilled sardines for the exorbitant price of one Gold Piece. Well, it'll help restore some of the Stamina I just heaved up, so I pay the price.

Meanwhile, our rescuer is getting into a heated argument with the local merchant to whom he's attempting to sell the fish he caught on the way here. He complains that the price being offered is unreasonably low, while the merchant claims that this is the best deal he's going to get here. As both men grow increasingly agitated, the merchant suddenly transforms into a monstrous creature which attacks first the fisherman and then Brother Tobyn.

It was at this point that I went awry in my first attempt at the book. Suspecting that if I used a vial of smoke-oil to reverse the transformation, I would soon be robbed of my remaining vials, I attacked the monstrous merchant, who reverted to human form once I'd killed him. Conveniently arriving too late to see him in his demonic aspect, the local militia arrested me for murder (and Brother Tobyn as an accessory) and locked us up. Not long after that I learned that, like lycanthropy, demon plague can be passed on by a wound, as Brother Tobyn turned into something nasty and attacked me, and I didn't survive that fight.

This time I cure the merchant, thereby attracting the attention of some guards and a red-eyed reptilian figure in grey, hooded robes. Bystanders appear fearful of the hooded one, who tells me that the guards don't like outsiders, and says we should go with him. Opting not to judge by appearances, I take his advice, and we follow the mysterious character through the streets, Brother Tobyn already showing signs of being in a bad way.

Eventually we reach a house located under a bridge, which pretty much confirms to anyone who's played City of Thieves that accompanying the stranger was the right decision. Once we're indoors, our host removes the robe and dispels the enchantment that disguised him as a non-human. It's Nicodemus, the reclusive and occasionally helpful wizard, who wants to provide me with vague assistance in my quest. To this end he gives me four quirkily-named potions (and no explanation of what any of them do), advises me to head for Salamonis to seek information on how to find the Invisible City, says I'll have to travel alone because Brother Tobyn has demon plague, and encourages me to take the robes with which he concealed his identity, so nobody will bother me on my way out of the city.

The book tries to make me suspect that Nicodemus might be up to no good, and offers a couple of pretty obviously inadvisable alternatives to doing as he says, but I'm not taken in. As I take the robe, Brother Tobyn metamorphoses into something nasty, and before I can even think of using another vial of smoke-oil to cure him, Nicodemus vaporises him on the grounds that the next part of the gamebook isn't structured to handle the potential presence of a sidekick he was doomed anyway. Disregarding the blatantly suicidal option of attacking the wizard who just blasted my erstwhile companion into his component atoms, I don the robe and head out of town.

Thanks to the sorcerous disguise, I am untroubled by the various rogues and miscreants I pass on my way to the main gate, but the robe vanishes as soon as I pass beyond the city walls, causing me to revert to my normal appearance. A nearby beggar with dirty cloths wrapped around his eyes and ears offers to tell me secrets in return for a Gold Piece. I pay up, and he reveals that he was once a powerful wizard, but Blacksand's ruler had him blinded, deafened and muted, yet still failed to completely deprive him of his power (I hadn't noticed until he pointed it out, but he's addressing me telepathically rather than verbally). After handing me a bottle of 'Nostalgia' perfume and a flask of poison antidote, he advises me to follow the Corpse Road, view the magic city from Mount Meerar, pass through the Gates of Death, and not eat too many pies. One of these hints is not like the others...

Setting off towards Salamonis, I haven't gone far before a quintet of armed brigands accosts me, demanding everything but the shirt on my back, and offering an ominous-sounding 'special gift' if I comply. To the best of my knowledge, I can't succeed in my quest unless I retain at least one vial of smoke-oil, so I must either fight or flee. It appears that if I'd been imprisoned in Port Blacksand, I might now have a weapon that could aid me in combat against the group, but as I wasn't, I'd better use an item.

One of the potions Nicodemus gave me has the name 'Thick as Thieves', which suggests that it might be of some use in this situation. I uncork the bottle, and a cloud of blue smoke emerges and heads straight for the would-be robbers' nostrils. In an instant the men's wits are addled, an argument breaks out, and while the gang might no longer be able to remember that their swords are called swords, they still know how to use them well enough that not one of them survives the fight.

Searching the bodies, I help myself to a sword, a sausage, and a jar of healing ointment. Then I set off down the road again, and don't get far before a black horse-drawn carriage (if you're wondering whether that 'black' describes the carriage or the horses, it's both) on its way out of Port Blacksand catches up to me. Its passenger, a veiled woman who introduces herself as Lady Webspinn, thanks me for dealing with the highwaymen who've been preying on travellers, and offers me a lift to Salamonis.

While the combination of colour scheme, veil and name could be considered ominous, I accept. Lady Webspinn introduces me to her maidservant Liara and asks me where I'm going. On my previous attempt at this book, prompted by a warning in the paragraph text, I made up something rather than reveal the truth, but subsequent developments made it clear that everything which hints that the Lady might be up to no good is just misdirection, so this time I'll reveal my destination.

When I mention that I seek the Invisible City, Lady Webspinn says that she's heard it can only be found by those who know where to look for it, recommends I call on Swann the mapmaker in Salamonis, and gives directions to his shop. At her direction, Liara offers me some food, and as I'm still below full Stamina, I accept. The meal is good, and after eating, I doze off.

When I awaken, the carriage has stopped in Silverton for the night. Lady Webspinn tells me to be back at the carriage by daybreak if I want to continue travelling with her tomorrow, and she and Liara head into the local inn. I decide to save the cost of a room, and take shelter in a nearby stable.

My rest is disturbed when a bad pun attempts to steal my money. Hurling the armlike Hay Thiever away from myself, I see it start to crawl away, and decide to try and follow it to its lair in case there's good loot to be found there. I get a bit dirty, as it's been raining, and I blunder into some puddles along the way, but eventually the creature enters a hole in a wall, and I risk reaching inside. There are many items in there, and I pull out a pouch containing some gold. The book is sure to penalise greed sooner or later, but overcautiousness can also doom a gamebook hero, so I'll risk one further attempt at grabbing loot. It nets me a potion bottle, duplicating one of the as yet unused potions from Nicodemus, and the Thiever is becoming very agitated, so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Returning to the stable, I settle down once more, and the rest of the night passes without incident. Awakened by a cockerel, I head for Lady Webspinn's carriage. A porter is loading it, and informs me that it's private and not for the likes of me, but remembering her Ladyship's invitation, I ignore him and knock on the door, and am welcomed aboard. Lady Webspinn says she will be glad of my company, as Liara is unwell, and authorially-imposed idiocy keeps me from wondering if the illness could be demon plague. Even so, the rest of the journey to Salamonis passes without incident, though we do see assorted demon plague victims along the way.

Purple clouds hang in the sky above the city, subjecting it to a deluge of similarly-coloured rain. Lady Webspinn takes this as evidence that there is a demon portal close by, quoting an old rhyme (a blatant parody of the obvious Prince song), and teaching me an incantation that will enable me to escape from the portal (and mess with the book's internal chronology) if I get drawn into it.

Leaving Liara in the coach, Lady Webspinn asks me to accompany her to the Halls of Learning, where she hopes to find information about the plague, and again I say nothing about having more than enough of the cure to be able to help out and still complete my mission. I do agree to act as an armed escort, though, and we set off through the streets. Observing demons skulking in an alleyway, Lady Webspinn gives me a silver ring that will protect me, and anyone familiar with what Titan has to say about runes will recognise its inscription as indicating a connection with the Neutral powers. She says she knows of a secret passage into the Halls, and I follow her down a flight of steps to a courtyard containing a statue of trickster deity Logaan, which displays the same symbol as the ring.

Assorted demons who, to judge by their clothes, used to be local tradespersons and nobles, advance upon us. Lady Webspinn approaches the statue and pushes on the symbol (which, in an instance of authorial and/or editorial carelessness, has changed from a star to an arrow, mixing up the two runes used by the tricksters). Part of a nearby wall opens to reveal a tunnel entrance, from which issues the smell of rotting meat. Still preferable to confronting the demonic horde, so I follow the Lady into the passageway, and she reseals the entrance before any of the demons can get through it.

As we follow the winding tunnel, Lady Webspinn reveals that she's a scholar from Salamonis, who had travelled to Port Blacksand in the hope of meeting with Nicodemus to see if he could help combat the plague, but wasn't able to find him. We find the source of the unpleasant smell - a dead guard, showing signs of having been killed by a demon, indicating these tunnels to be less secure than Lady Webspinn had hoped. The passage forks, and her Ladyship tells me that one turning leads to Titan Square, the heart of the city, while the other goes to the Halls, and gives me the option of going my own way. I choose to stick with her until she reaches whatever safety can be found under the circumstances.

At last we reach the Halls, where several other scholars are chained to pillars. Lady Webspinn moves to free them until they explain that they've chosen to be immobilised in this way so that if any of them succumb to the plague, they won't be able to harm the others. There's a kind of logic to that, but it does leave them all vulnerable if any demons should break in.

Two demons break in. Well, actually there's a bit of exposition first - the scholars mention another adventurer who passed through a short while ago, and Lady Webspinn urges me to visit the mapmaker - but comedic timing trumps chronology. I use a vial of smoke-oil to change the demons back into the soldiers they used to be, and they volunteer to stay here and protect the scholars from further incursions.

It's time I was moving on. Another purple downpour commences as I leave the Halls, but it doesn't keep me from reaching Titan Square, which is overshadowed by a massive statue of the eponymous deity. There are exits to all cardinal points of the compass, but west leads to where I entered the city, so that's not an option. Remembering the directions I was given, I head north to a crossroads, continue north to another crossroads, and then turn west. Most of the shops on this street have been boarded up, and a jeweller's has been burned down, but the mapmaker's shows signs of still being occupied, and a peek through the window reveals that the proprietor is accompanied by four Man-Orc guards.

Observing the glint of gold in the ruin of the jeweller's, I decide to investigate. Bad idea: it turns out that the jeweller had a load of gold teeth, which he retained when the plague transformed him into a demonic monstrosity, and they're what I saw shining. Dodging his attack, I stumble into a hole where the fire destroyed the floorboards, and land in the cellar, which contains more locals-turned demons. Lots of them. Too many to cure or fight, so I get torn apart.

So, again I fall victim to the cryptic nuances of gamebook morality. Sometimes seeking valuables is the only way of being able to acquire an essential item, and sometimes it just gets you punished for being too greedy. Incidentally, my second attempt at this book also ended thanks to my misjudging a grey area, though on that occasion I fell victim to strong drink while trying to find out if a little social interaction with a Dwarf would furnish me with any helpful information.

When I started this post, I considered The Gates of Death to be a flawed gamebook, but undeserving of the intensity of hatred that it gets from some fans, and nothing that happened while playing it again has changed my opinion.

Better Trained, Better Equipped, Better... Better!

The Prisoners of Time is the second of the Mongoose Books Lone Wolf reissues to feature a mini-adventure set after the main adventure rather than before it. Now that I've won Prisoners, I'll move on to the bonus material, James M. Stuart's Lord of Meledor, hoping that it's not as linear or as harsh as the slog that it accompanies.

In this adventure I play the part of Lorkon Ironheart, leader of the army that fought the forces of the Chaos-master when not too busy having friendly fire incidents. In the two years since otherworldly interloper Lone Wolf assisted in the slaying of the Chaos-master (sure, he may have struck the final blow, and most-to-all of the others that preceded it, but I was the one who wore the Chaos-master down by making him chase me and try to hit me with a tree, so, you know, credit where it's due), my troops have been driving the remnants of the Chaos-master's armies from our lands, and only occasionally massacring each other.

Now I've been called upon to deal with bandits based in the Nahgoth forest, who have been attacking nearby villages, causing death and destruction, and retreating to cover before any proper opposition can get organised. I get together 400 cavalry to aid me, so perhaps Lone Wolf told me about incidents in his world in which armies of 50 or 100 fared poorly against unexpectedly numerous bandits.

Before I get going, there is the matter of character creation. Randomness determines my stats, giving me:
Combat Skill 10
Endurance 25
I also get to pick three of a possible five special skills, and given that my CS is as low as it could get, I think I'd better make one of them Swordmaster in order to gain a +3 bonus when fighting with a sword, making me just mediocre rather than appallingly inept. For the other two, I'll have Enhanced Psi and Master Tactician, and hope that the sort of situation that Rune Mastery clearly exists to remedy is not an unavoidable element of the adventure.

Starting equipment is at least partly pre-determined. I have a broadsword, armour painted with runes to ward off chaos, a backpack, and three healing potions. No food and no money, though the description of the backpack's carrying capacity suggests that I will need to eat at times. Maybe I'll have a chance to pick up more stuff before my troops and I properly hit the road.

Maybe not. By the end of the first section, I'm leading my army to the site of the most recent bandit attack. And not only do I have no opportunity to collect further equipment, I don't even get to make a decision. Just shunted on to a new section, which likewise ends in a redirection rather than a choice. I wonder if Mr Stuart thinks allowing the reader to have any influence on what happens would be bringing too much Chaos into the sequence of events.

We see the smoke before we catch sight of the hamlet itself. Or rather, its remnants. The buildings have been torched, and their inhabitants killed and mutilated. Near one smouldering ruin are assorted beings, some of them human, the others chaos-spawned hybrids. While the initial description of the mob had them arguing, the next section says that they're marching away, and pick up their pace upon catching sight of us, leaving the slow-moving undead who didn't previously get a mention lagging behind. 

At this point I can choose what to do, though first my Master Tactician skill provides advice which suggests that a more appropriate name for it would be Stating the Blooming Obvious: if I let the bandits escape, I won't be able to obtain any information from them, but sending some of my troops in pursuit risks exposing them to danger.

If the author wants my army dead, they're going to get slaughtered no matter what I do, and letting the only promising lead I have just escape seems unlikely to facilitate progress. My fastest units and I give chase - but our quarry reach the cover of the forest before we can catch up to them, and the thickness of the vegetation makes it necessary to dismount if we want to keep going. Conditions have now become that bit too unfavourable, so I think it better to turn back and hope to find some kind of clue on one of the undead.

Calling off the chase leads to another section ending only in a redirection, but this one is more reasonable, as it points to the same section I'd have turned to if I'd not given pursuit at all. Using an interim section to hide the fact that the outcome would be the same (at least until after the decision was made) is sound authorial strategy.

No further mention of the slower-moving enemies, so presumably even they were actually quick enough to elude us. Makes me wonder why they were even mentioned. Anyway, with no leads at all I must now try to anticipate where the next attack will occur, so we can be ready for the bandits and their inhuman associates. Will being a Master Tactician prove any more helpful here?

It does: the series of past raids suggests a pattern, from which I deduce that the enemy's next target is likely to be the town of Khonat. We proceed there, evacuate the locals, and prepare an ambush. Again there's a decision-free section transition, but unless not choosing Master Tactician automatically results in failure (and I do know of a gamebook which is apparently unwinnable if a certain special skill is not picked during character creation), there'd have to be a textual bottleneck to bring at least some of the 'chose other skills' players back onto the same track that I'm on.

Scouts soon confirm that this is where the hostile forces are now headed - and reveal that my troops are outnumbered four to one. What is it with the Lone Wolf system and ridiculously oversized and well-organised bandit armies? We prepare for the attack, and it would appear that Rune Mastery would help with shoring up our defences. Well, we'll just have to do without whatever edge that skill might have provided.

The enemy come into view. A horde of bandits and mercenaries (the latter distinguished from the former by uniforms) with rusting armour and well-maintained weapons is flanked on both sides by chaotic monstrosities, and despite having seen undead amongst the retreating troops at the devastated hamlet, I am apparently surprised to see animated corpses bringing up the rear. The author draws particular attention to the zombie of a biped with the head of a horse, and then forgets about it in the excitement of another decision-free section transition.

As the attack commences, the bandits defy their leaders' commands and stand their ground, letting their chaotic and undead allies precede them into battle. Volleys of arrows bring down many of the chaos-spawn, but have little effect upon the shambling corpses. My troops draw their swords as our opponents near striking distance, and again I get redirected to a new section without any opportunity to influence the course of events.

Once battle is joined, I am targeted by an Undead Agtah Assassination Squad. My bodyguards reduce the amount of damage I take, which is a good thing, as the random factor skews towards the 'fare poorly' end of the scale, but as the text doesn't bother to indicate whether halves round up or down, I can't be sure exactly how much Endurance I lose. If this adventure ends with a close-fought battle, that ambiguity could spell the difference between success and failure, but considering how that first fight went, I'm probably doomed regardless.

In the battle as a whole, the tide is slowly turning in our favour, as our opponents' numerical advantage is outweighed by my troops' greater proficiency and organisation. Thus, when I catch sight of an enemy who's got better armour than the rest, and is actually issuing orders to his subordinates, I figure that eliminating him could prove advantageous. Given my poor Combat Skill, the likelihood of my successfully taking him out isn't as high as I'd like, but as there's no option to send a more competent fighter to deal with him, I just down one of my healing potions and charge at him.

Well, the randomiser certainly made up for its earlier bias against me. In the course of eviscerating that Bandit Officer I took less damage than was healed by the potion. Some of my troops form a protective cordon around me and my dying foe as I attempt to interrogate him regarding who is behind these attacks. He refuses to speak, so I make use of my Enhanced Psi to probe his mind.

Oh yes, the Mind Probe.

Before he dies, I see visions of a bearded man in robes, his flesh visibly rotting in places, outlining a battle plan, and then draining the life of a chaos beast, followed by the sight of a city in which people wear herb pouches over their faces, where a mixed army much like the one we're fighting is mustering in a public square.

The section to which I now turn has its number right at the bottom of one page (in footer territory), and its text at the top of the next one, and that's not even the worst instance of such editorial sloppiness in this book - the next such error has the section number and the corresponding text on different two-page spreads.

Searching the corpse, I find a Golden Medallion with the image of a dragon on it. I get to choose whether or not to retain it, so I'm going to have to guess whether it's helpful or harmful. And since this series has precedent for both lacking a certain item and possessing a specific object to guarantee Instant Death, choosing poorly here could end very badly. I think I'll risk taking it, in case it's needed for passing a checkpoint somewhere in enemy territory.

Oh, and remember how these adventures distinguish between Backpack Items and Special Items, and have separate carrying capacities for both? Well, somebody involved in the making of this one forgot, so I'm going to have to guess about that, too. Not that it matters at the moment, but it could be a problem if I pick up more stuff along the way. Especially if the adventure forces me to carry around a load of irrelevant tat.

Just like that, the battle is over. The enemy forces are routed, and this time my cavalry are able to thin the ranks of the fleeing miscreants. That should put an end to the raids on villages, but I'm left wondering who instigated them, and how he managed to get the disparate groups involved to cooperate. Then a healer brings me a potion, which restores most of the Endurance I lost in combat (or all of it, depending on which way I should have rounded off those pesky half-points of damage).

Stepping out of character for a moment, I've just remembered that the group of Sommerlund's Most Unwanted that Lone Wolf fought just before taking on Vonotar included one villain with a comically long beard. And a quick peek back at the potted biographies of that rogue's gallery confirms that one of them was a necromancer. What are the odds that Lone Wolf didn't kill him hard enough, and he's the one behind all this unpleasantness?

Anyway, I get shunted to a fresh section to consult with my surviving officers. It turns out that we captured some of the enemy as well as killing a load of them. The chaos beasts in their midst are being slaughtered, but the humans get treated humanely, and we question them about their leader. They know little beyond the fact that they were promised lots of loot and really don't enjoy fighting alongside chaos-spawn. Such creatures are apparently prone to ignoring the distinction between friend and foe (even more so than my own troops), and powerful magic was being employed to keep them from indiscriminately mauling bandits and mercenaries along with the villagers they were massacring. Whoever is responsible for all this is obviously a serious threat.

Only one of the men we question provides any more concrete information, thereby bridging the gap between metaknowledge and in-character awareness. The vision of people with herbal face-masks combined with my memories of the endgame of Prisoners had already made it clear to me as a reader that the villain was based in Haagadar (which is also where Lone Wolf fought the necrobeardy), but the last brigand to be questioned provides confirmation that that's where out real enemy has his HQ.

Given that Haagadar is a long way away, and has formidable natural defences, I decide against taking an army there. Well, the decision is made for me - I've just been redirected from section to section without any input into what happens for a while. In fact, almost two thirds of the sections through which I've passed so far ended with a single 'Turn to' direction, and around half of the rest were special skill checks rather than proper choices. But I digress.

The plan is to send a team of scouts to infiltrate Haagadar and gather intel. Well, 'send' as in 'lead'. And, gamebooks being gamebooks, I imagine that this expedition will include a confrontation with Zombie Saruman rather than just having us find out what's going on and come back to lead a better-prepared army in an assault on Haagadar.

The night's rest before we set off on this mission provides enough healing that I'm back up to full health regardless of rounding. The first few days of the 'difficult journey' which ensues are covered in just a few sentences, which is a bit unimpressive, but after another special skill check, things get more detailed. I'm not sure that that's an improvement, though, as my anonymous companions and I now get to experience a cut-price version of the tedious mystic trip that Lone Wolf experienced at around this stage of the trek. Blah blah psychedelia, blah blah flashback, blah blah false memories, blah blah possible premonition of a dragon, blah blah section transition.

Suddenly everything goes normal, and my generic associates and I find ourselves at a desert oasis not that far from Haagadar. Uncertain how long it has actually taken us to get this far, we pick up the pace for the march through the wasteland between the oasis and our goal. Left, right, left, right, left, right, aaand... wait for it... section transition!

We are at the bottom of a cliff, and Haagadar is at the top, surrounded by a wall with a big statue of a dragon on it. Like Lone Wolf before me, I am faced with a choice between trying to climb the cliff and sneaking into the city via a sewage culvert, and like my predecessor I opt for the latter. If that vision of a dragon was showing a potential encounter, or a symbolic representation of the city's defences, the climb might be even more dangerous than your standard ascent of a steep rock face without ropes or safety net. Yes, there are hostile creatures lurking in the foul waters we shall traverse, but I'm sure the unidentified bunch by my side will prove a match, or at least a distraction, for any attacking denizens of the detritus.

There's a walkway alongside the stream of filth, and luminescent fungi make it easier for us to see where we're going. And also to see the threat which awaits us on the other side of the next section transition. Which turns out to be a mystical barrier rather than muck-dwelling fauna. Rune Mastery would come in handy here, but I don't have it. Resisting the temptation to sneak a peek at the consequences of passing through the barrier, which are on the facing page (there really is no excuse for having decision and outcome that close together when there are so many choice-free sections just to bulk out the numbers), I reluctantly choose to turn back and try the climb.

As with reconsidering pursuing the enemy at the start of the adventure, there's an interim section to disguise the fact that there's no penalty for changing your mind, and I don't have a problem with that one either.

We take off our armour and attach it to our packs, split up into pairs, and rope ourselves together with previously unmentioned safety equipment before commencing our ascent. My partner in climb gains a name, Oran, but loses his footing at an inconvenient moment, and randomness determines whether or not I lose my grip. The odds would be worse if my Endurance were low, but even without that penalty, they're not great.

I get the middling outcome, which takes me to a nonexistent section. A quick check to see if lopping off the first or last digit takes me to the right section... nope, so I'm going to have to check for online errata. The only list I can find points out that one edition of Prisoners slightly misspelled the name of the cover artist, and the Mongoose edition's Combat Results Table designates the player character as Lone Wolf even though Lorkon Ironheart is the hero of the mini-adventure, but overlooks the whole 'spectacularly wrong section number listed' thing. I'm just going to have to go through section by section until I find the right one. And despite trying to focus only on the first few words of each section, I still come across a massive spoiler before discovering that the book meant 138 when it said 199.

[That error and the spoiler so annoyed me that it took around a week for me to work up sufficient motivation to play on.]

By wedging a fist into a crack, I manage to keep us from falling while Oran finds a foothold, but I take some damage in the process. We resume our climb, reaching the top without further incident, and put our armour back on, donning cloaks as a vague attempt at disguise. I brush off Oran's attempt at an apology because my character doesn't yet know what I inadvertently learned while trying to find the right section, and thinks the slip was a genuine accident.

We're still on the wrong side of the city wall, so we need to either do some more climbing or head for the doubtless guarded gate. Our not having been attacked by a dragon on the way up has me wondering if that vision I had was a cryptic hint that the Golden Medallion might enable me to impersonate an officer from the army being mustered here, so I opt to head for the gate.

When the gate comes into view I see a couple of guards with swords and crossbows, who look inattentive, being rather too confident that any would-be attackers will be unable to get past the cliff. The options available to me here include bluffing and trying to use Enhanced Psi, but I know that using powers of the mind sometimes costs Endurance, so I'll stick with the Medallion plan.

The text again points out that the sheerness of the cliff has lulled the guards into a false sense of security. Maybe Mr Stuart should have checked his notes and reminded himself that it's not the reader who's failing to pay attention. There is indeed a check to see if I have the Medallion, which I display prominently as I march up to the guards and claim to be bringing news from Vhozada. Despite the text's having repeatedly stressed how complacent the guards are, there's still a 40% chance of their seeing through the deception, which seems a bit high.

I get the more favourable outcome, which means that the guard I address, though clearly very suspicious, nevertheless allows us through. What happened to the whole 'slacking because he was sure enemies would be incapable of getting up here' thing? Seems to me that if anyone wasn't paying attention, it was the author and editor.

Once inside the city we notice its foul smell (what are the walls and gate made of, to contain it so effectively?), and cover our noses and mouths with our hands to try and block the stench, also concealing our faces from the locals. And we're back to strings of gratuitous section transitions with no choices or checks. We distance ourselves from the gates, and take shelter in an abandoned building. At the text's behest I head up to the roof for a better view. The city looks grim, and as I proceed to the fifth consecutive option-free redirection, so does the adventure.

One of my companions tends my wounds, healing the damage I took during the climb. It's time we were on the move again, and I get to make a decision, though only a 'be smart or take unnecessary risks' one. Do we continue to keep a low profile, or are we suddenly in such a hurry that stealth is no longer an option? I don't think there's going to be a 'your homeland is destroyed because you didn't reach enemy HQ half an hour earlier' ending, so let's stick to back-streets and alleyways as much as possible.

We head for the city centre, passing a rogue apostrophe and another choice-free section transition. The alley we are using leads to a wider street, and to a startling sight hidden behind yet another redirection to a new paragraph. That sight turns out to be a parade of chaos beasts, bandits, mercenaries and undead, led by a bearded man in dirty robes, who shows clear signs of physical decay and chaos mutation, but radiates power. He's obviously in charge of the enemy forces, and takes them out of sight and into a fresh paragraph.

Distancing ourselves from the street, we head back up the alley. Up ahead, a gang of chaos beasts rounds a corner and rushes at us. A second mob of brutes follows behind them. I have to choose between flight and two variants of fight, and Master Tactician provides no hints. In case the influence that was restraining the chaos beasts in the army isn't affecting these creatures, I lead a charge at the closer lot, hoping to provoke a retreat and have the two groups come into conflict with each other.

While it seems that the two groups of enemies just combine, the charge does give us a slight edge. Nevertheless, I now have to fight two chaos beasts in turn, and I should probably try to conclude the battle rapidly, as their chaotic influence appears to be warping the text, producing a direction for if I should win 'all both of these combats'.

I survive the fight, but now find myself alone, with most of my companions lying dead in the alley, and Oran missing presumed captured. My character, still being unaware of that spoiler, shudders to think what horrors my erstwhile climbing buddy might now be experiencing. Following another redirection to a new section, I conclude that the 'man' I saw leading the parade has the potential to become as serious a threat as the Chaos-master, and I need to kill him before I leave this place.

Using my Enhanced Psi, I attempt to send a message about the situation here to my people in case I should fail to overcome the new enemy leader, but find that something is blocking all telepathic communication.

After sheltering and resting in another abandoned building, thereby recovering a little of the Endurance I lost in the fight, I encounter another Rune Mastery check. For a skill that the rules made out to be all about chaos-proofing armour, it's coming up more often than expected.

Missing out on whatever benefit the skill would have provided, I return to the back streets of Haagadar and make my way to the temple at the centre, sensing that the villain I seek is based within. A couple of tentacled monstrosities stand guard by the main doors, so I decide to try the vent on the roof that Lone Wolf ignored back when he was trying to get into the same place. The vent leads me to a chamber with a locked door, and I use Enhanced Psi to get it open, losing a little Endurance. In anticipation of a climactic fight or two, I down the rest of my healing potions.

Leaving the room and closing the door gets a paragraph all to itself. Proceeding down the corridor past numerous bolted doors, I reach some unsecured double doors and a spiral staircase leading up. I ascend to a balcony overlooking a circular hall, in which a marble throne stands in front of a grotesquely-carved archway opening into a dark void.

In front of the throne, the bearded man and Oran are talking. For some reason, Oran has stripped to the waist, as a result of which I can see the reptilian scales that cover much of his torso, indicating him to have been an agent of chaos for some time. Eavesdropping on the conversation, I learn that the semi-decomposed mutant is named Vezh, and he thinks I must have fled the city, while Oran believes me to be in hiding and devising a new strategy. I guess I am, in a way, but not quite as he thinks.

The text presents me with three options, and while yelling at my enemies is obviously a bad idea, I'm not sure if remaining hidden will enable me to learn something of value or just lead to my being discovered and losing the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. Waiting could also mean that something nasty has time to come through the portal, so I think I'll just hurl myself into melee.

While I have surprise on my side, I am outnumbered and Vezh knows magic, so the odds are not in my favour. If I get 7 or above a lot, I might be in with a chance, so let's see what the randomiser has for me... More low numbers than high, alas, so while I do a decent bit of damage, my foes are still standing by the time I expire.

Well, while Lord of Meledor shares many of the flaws of the full-length adventure it accompanies, it's not as tedious, and probably less unfair - winning that combat would not have taken me to the final section, so I don't know what follows the fight, and thus can't be certain that the climax doesn't involve egregiously unfair authorial shenanigans. Still, I wouldn't be averse to playing it again, though I'd definitely want less abysmal stats.