This is a brief seasonal digression from my ongoing attempt at Night of the Necromancer. Earlier this year I picked up a copy of the last issue of 2000 AD published in 2011, having learned that it contained an in-joke-ridden interactive Judge Dredd comic strip entitled Choose Your Own Xmas, written by Al Ewing, with art by John Higgins. So far I've not had a go at it, as I was saving it for today.
In this adventure I play the part of Jackson Packard, a citizen of Mega-City One, alarmed to suddenly find myself hearing a voice, which tells me that this is the start of an adventure in which I am the hero, and the choices I make will determine whether I live or die. What kind of lunacy is this?
A co-worker recommends that I seek psychiatric assistance, but I'm not sure I can spare the time, as it's Xmas Eve and I still have gift shopping to do. Deciding to get my shopping done first, I proceed to the kitchenware section of Montgomery's store, where I pick out a las-knife for Aunt Flavia.
Suddenly my name is called by Judge Dredd, who seems under the impression that I've done something wrong, and threatens to shoot me. The mysterious voice offers a choice between running away (in spite of Dredd's warning) or surrendering (which the voice suggests is inadvisable). I opt for fleeing, and the crowds are too heavy for the Judge to risk opening fire, so I manage to escape for now. The toss of a coin determines what happens next, which turns out to be another challenge from Dredd. The same challenge, in fact, so either I've just slipped back in time or the same panel is being somewhat sloppily recycled. I run again, and this time the coin establishes that I dash across the road, straight into the path of a Judge on his bike. The collision proves fatal for me.
Well, that was short and not very informative. I'll play again, and this time I'll take a chance on consulting a shrink. Dr. Schrumpfenkopf thinks the voice's mention of panels and choices could be related to my job - if I were a game-show host. As I'm an auxiliary lab technician, that hypothesis isn't viable, so the doctor concludes that the voice must be a manifestation of suppressed guilt relating to past criminal choices. I protest that I'm a law-abiding citizen, but the doctor is convinced that I must be a lawbreaker, and announces his intention to call the Judges.
Desperately I cast my mind back to what happened at work earlier in the day, hoping that I might be able to recall something sufficiently traumatic to be a plausible explanation for the voice. And I remember a professor talking about parallel universes, and the fact that so far the only ones contacted have been radically different from this one, though according to some theories there should be a multitude that are almost identical to it. I didn't pay that much attention at the time, as I was thinking about what presents to buy. I was then further distracted when the cable I was connecting gave me a shock, which I opted not to report in case it meant having to redo the procedure we'd been carrying out.
Recounting this does not dissuade the shrink from calling the Judges, though they may be a little preoccupied by an (unrelated, according to the voice) explosion at Joe Dever Block. Dredd, alas, is not distracted, and investigates the doctor's call. He recognises me, and demands to know how I can be here, suggesting teleportation or cloning. I have no idea what he's going on about and, interpreting my confusion as an attempt at feigning insanity, has me taken away to the Psycho-Cubes until I can provide a sensible explanation for what's been going on. As I am unable to do so, my adventure ends there.
I'm having another go. Things would apparently have gone differently if I'd bought that knife before going to the psychiatrist, so this time I go to the shop and, when confronted by Dredd, I surrender. A child mockingly points out that the Judge before me is just a doll, and I realise that the real Dredd is nowhere to be seen. Something is definitely not right, so I proceed to Dr Schrumpenkopf's, where things initially proceed as before. However, when Dredd bursts in, I'm the one who makes the startled exclamation of recognition, whereas the Judge claims that we've never met.
Panel number recognition tells me that trying to explain what's going on will result in the same ending as on my second attempt, which leaves me with little choice but to use the knife and take the doctor hostage. Dredd hesitates, so I throw the psychiatrist at him and make a run for it. Surveillance picks me up on Hildick Boulevard, heading for Chalke Street, which seems to be geographically impossible - a mystery that Dredd adds to the one about my having already died twice tonight.
One of the other Judges can help with that. My colleague Steve Livingstone has explained about the accident, and... at this point the voice interrupts this unexplained vision of what's happening elsewhere, and tells me I must flee to the Cursed Earth, unless I think I might find some answers myself back at the lab.
I return to the lab, and find Dredd waiting for me. He seems unimpressed at my attempt to explain that the machine must be to blame, somehow causing every possible outcome of my different decisions to manifest in this reality rather than splitting off into parallel realities as normal. The voice gives me the option of going insane and killing the Judge, but I can tell that that's not going to work (part genre-savviness, part being unable to avoid seeing the image of my head being blown apart in the panel just after the one for choosing insanity), so I continue trying to convince him of what's happening.
Dredd is shaken, having possibly just experienced what would have happened if I'd made the other choice, but still insists on taking me in. The voice tells me I must escape, and as I've already seen the fatal outcome of trying to get away on foot, I choose to try hijacking a vehicle instead. This goes badly, leading to a collision with a chemical tanker, the resultant explosion seemingly the one the voice said was nothing to do with me.
Okay, one final try. It goes the same way as my previous one until the voice tells me to escape, at which point I reject the choice and proceed to the next panel as if reading a normal comic rather than a gamebook-style one. The voice protests, demanding that I pick one of the options offered, and adding what I think is the 'head blown apart' one if I insist on something else. I'm sticking with linear progression.
The voice suggests another alternative, and then decides to take me back to panel 1. Seeing me start to vanish, Dredd fires a high explosive round at the machine, interrupting the voice's desperate attempt at redirecting me to another panel. I reappear, freed of the burden of having to make decisions that determine how events transpire. And Dredd arrests me and sentences me to life imprisonment, because I chose not to report the accident in the lab, thereby allowing the interactive shenanigans that resulted in the deaths of over a thousand citizens.
No happy endings for me, then, but that doesn't come as a great surprise, given the setting. Choose Your Own Xmas works better as a Judge Dredd one-shot than a proper mini-gamebook, but as pastiches go, it's one of the better ones I've encountered.
Tuesday 25 December 2018
Wednesday 19 December 2018
Falling Into Action, the Moment Soon is Over
Continuing my latest attempt at the 64th Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Night of the Necromancer, I now find myself heading for my family home, Valsinore castle. The similarity to the name of Hamlet's home is not to be considered that relevant, as I have neither a brother to blame for my death nor a son to cause mayhem in the course of attempting to avenge it. At the time of posting this playthrough, I do not own a copy of the interactive version of Hamlet, but if I ever do get hold of one, I'll give it a go here.
Enough digressing: right now the gameplay's the thing. Arriving at the castle without further incident, I must now decide how to get in. I could try sneaking past the guards on the main gate with the help of my newly-discovered ability to turn invisible, or crawl through the culvert that carries away the castle's sewage, but first I mean to try and find out whether or not being a ghost confers upon me the power of flight.
My gamebook manager reveals the surprising fact that I've never tried this before. I'd assumed that my memories of the unpleasantness that can occur in the sewage culvert (which is not the sort of bother one might normally expect to encounter in such an environment) were a consequence of an unsuccessful attempt at redefining my relationship with the force of gravity, but it turns out that I didn't even attempt to learn to fly first. Maybe I erroneously assumed that the option was only open to characters that already possessed the ability. When playing a book for the blog, I always read the text that bit more carefully, so it could be that this time round I was paying enough attention to pick up on the lack of 'if you have the relevant ability' text.
Will and Luck determine whether or not I am able to float up into the air, and I succeed at both rolls. As I soar over the battlements, I look down upon the castle, and am perturbed to see that the Keep is in total darkness. Still, heading straight there to investigate would mean missing out on a lot of potential encounters in the Outer and Inner Wards of the castle, some of which may well be essential to success, so I descend on the inside of the wall I just crossed.
Back on home turf, I become aware of a sinister atmosphere overshadowing the place, and see a crowd of ethereal beings circling overhead. In the Outer Ward I have access to the smithy, the stables, the guard barracks, the battlements and the kennels. Having been advised to 'seek out the metal-worker', I make the smithy my first port of call.
My old friend Bertild the smith, one of the few non-evil eyepatch-wearers in fiction, is at work. I'm about to enter and greet her when I notice a line of salt that covers the threshold. Thinking it unlikely that Bertild has been having a lot of trouble with invading slugs and snails, I decide to try and get her attention rather than simply cross the barrier.
Rumours of my death have already reached the castle, as Bertild takes the sight of my spectral form as proof of what she's heard. My post-life state saddens her rather than scaring her, and she wipes away some of the salt to allow me in. I explain what happened to me, and Bertild vows to help avenge my death, which so inspires me that I get another point of Will and a Luck bonus.
I ask if there are any items in the castle that could be of use to me, and Bertild mentions the legendary Amethyst Blade said to be hidden somewhere in the castle. Though its life-draining properties may make it more of a force for Evil than Good. And it might not be possible for a disembodied spirit such as me to wield it. But apart from those minor details, it could be just what I need. There is also the automated suit of armour that Bertild spent the best part of a year building, but Chamberlain Unthank's dread knights confiscated it and locked it away in the Barbican just as she was getting ready to fix the last few bugs.
I would ask about the 'dread knights', but a noise from the forge gets our attention, and we see the flaming coal and clinker transform into two small humanoids that advance towards us. Bertild smashes one of them with her hammer, and my ghostly sword puts paid to the other. Nevertheless, it is now obvious that this place is no longer secure, so I leave before anything else can manifest.
On my first attempt at this book, one of my non-final deaths occurred because I visited a couple of other places within the Outer Ward in the wrong order. That is not a mistake I plan to repeat, so I now head for the kennels. This does cause most of the dogs to get scared and make a lot of noise, but my own hunting hound is delighted to see me despite my changed circumstances, and would probably be jumping all over me and licking me if I weren't so intangible. He accompanies me as I leave the kennels, and will harass any opponents I face (except for the incorporeal ones, whom he can't affect), subjecting them to an Attack Strength penalty. The encouragement provided by this faithful companion also provides a boost to my Will (and a Luck bonus I can't use).
Now I can proceed to the guard barracks. In there, I eventually make it to the Captain's quarters. Captain Cador senses my presence and draws a sword, the silvered sigils on the blade suggesting that this is a weapon that could harm me (and the memory of my first attempt at the book confirming that it can inflict lethal damage on my spectral form).
I attempt to calm him, and he says I look like a 'brave knight' he knows to be dead. For some reason I am puzzled at his knowledge, even though I've already been informed that rumours of my death are already spreading through the castle. Still, the book doesn't go as far as giving me the option of assuming that he's in league with the Death Acolyte and leaping to the attack. Instead, I just explain that I'm my ghost and ask for help. The Captain is not convinced that I'm not a supernatural doppelganger, and insists that I prove my identity by naming my dog. The one who's probably gazing adoringly at me while wagging his tail right now.
Having been to the kennels, I do know the dog's name (not that I should have needed to encounter him before I could remember it - a Temple of Terror-style name-drop in the introductory passage would have been fairer, especially as it mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing my 'faithful hound' again), so I am able to convince the Captain that I am who I claim to be. Good thing the dog isn't wearing a collar with a name tag on, or the Captain might have suspected that I read it there, and demanded some really obscure bit of trivia as evidence.
I explain that I'm here to avenge my murder, and the Captain reveals that he and his guards are no longer allowed beyond the Outer Ward, as Chamberlain Unthank gave the responsibility of patrolling the inner regions of the castle to a mysterious order of knights around a year ago. The Captain then asks how he can help, and I tell him that I need information. As I'm beginning to wonder if leaving Unthank in charge of running the place while I was away may have been a bad idea, I decide to try and find out what else he's been up to in my absence.
Firstly the Chamberlain banned everyone but himself from going into the Keep. Rumour had it that he was spending most of his time searching the castle archives for something, and then it got out that he was building some kind of machine. Then the thirteen knights turned up on a stereotypically dark and stormy night, claiming to be seeking shelter, and Unthank invited them in, banished the established guards to the Outer Ward, and set his enigmatic new buddies to guard the Barbican. There's something locked in there that he doesn't want anyone else to touch. It feels as if events have been building towards something, and all indications point to the climax occurring tonight.
Cador goes on to admit that he believes there to be evil afoot, and he regrets not having been strong enough to take action back when it started to brew. He adds that Unthank is going ahead with the celebratory feast in spite of the death of the person whose return it should be celebrating (and the Outer Ward guards are not invited), and casually mentions a numerical combination that he managed to find out. Having finally run out of revelations, he wishes me well and dismisses me.
Is it worth checking out the stables? I decide to chance it. The horses don't react to my presence a lot better than the dogs did. One of them is saddled, and after a moment I realise that it's the one I was riding before I was ambushed. This gets me wondering what has become of my corpse, which seems a bit random - given that the miserable nag threw me and ran off before I got murdered, its presence here merely indicates that it knew the way home unaided. I suppose its riderless arrival might have prompted people to send out a search party, but the leap from 'That's my horse!' to 'Where's my body?' is still not that obvious.
On a more serious note, an equine phantom materialises in the stable, and it's even more agitated than the live horses. This spectral stallion is blocking my exit, so in order to move on, I must either fight it or try to calm it. Despite the risk that it might inspire a really inadvisable crossover, I try my skill as a ghost horse whisperer. Exerting my Will, I successfully pacify the skittish spook. There's nothing else I can do here right now, but knowing the whereabouts of a steed I could ride in my incorporeal state may be useful at a later juncture.
I think I've achieved as much as is worth achieving in the Outer Ward, so it's time to proceed to the Inner, which means traversing the Barbican and probably encountering Unthank's ominous knights. That will have to wait for another blog entry, though, as I will be travelling away to spend Christmas with the family in less than 12 hours, and don't know how much access I'll have to the internet while I'm gone, so it makes sense to conclude this instalment of the playthrough here and post it now.
Enough digressing: right now the gameplay's the thing. Arriving at the castle without further incident, I must now decide how to get in. I could try sneaking past the guards on the main gate with the help of my newly-discovered ability to turn invisible, or crawl through the culvert that carries away the castle's sewage, but first I mean to try and find out whether or not being a ghost confers upon me the power of flight.
My gamebook manager reveals the surprising fact that I've never tried this before. I'd assumed that my memories of the unpleasantness that can occur in the sewage culvert (which is not the sort of bother one might normally expect to encounter in such an environment) were a consequence of an unsuccessful attempt at redefining my relationship with the force of gravity, but it turns out that I didn't even attempt to learn to fly first. Maybe I erroneously assumed that the option was only open to characters that already possessed the ability. When playing a book for the blog, I always read the text that bit more carefully, so it could be that this time round I was paying enough attention to pick up on the lack of 'if you have the relevant ability' text.
Will and Luck determine whether or not I am able to float up into the air, and I succeed at both rolls. As I soar over the battlements, I look down upon the castle, and am perturbed to see that the Keep is in total darkness. Still, heading straight there to investigate would mean missing out on a lot of potential encounters in the Outer and Inner Wards of the castle, some of which may well be essential to success, so I descend on the inside of the wall I just crossed.
Back on home turf, I become aware of a sinister atmosphere overshadowing the place, and see a crowd of ethereal beings circling overhead. In the Outer Ward I have access to the smithy, the stables, the guard barracks, the battlements and the kennels. Having been advised to 'seek out the metal-worker', I make the smithy my first port of call.
My old friend Bertild the smith, one of the few non-evil eyepatch-wearers in fiction, is at work. I'm about to enter and greet her when I notice a line of salt that covers the threshold. Thinking it unlikely that Bertild has been having a lot of trouble with invading slugs and snails, I decide to try and get her attention rather than simply cross the barrier.
Rumours of my death have already reached the castle, as Bertild takes the sight of my spectral form as proof of what she's heard. My post-life state saddens her rather than scaring her, and she wipes away some of the salt to allow me in. I explain what happened to me, and Bertild vows to help avenge my death, which so inspires me that I get another point of Will and a Luck bonus.
I ask if there are any items in the castle that could be of use to me, and Bertild mentions the legendary Amethyst Blade said to be hidden somewhere in the castle. Though its life-draining properties may make it more of a force for Evil than Good. And it might not be possible for a disembodied spirit such as me to wield it. But apart from those minor details, it could be just what I need. There is also the automated suit of armour that Bertild spent the best part of a year building, but Chamberlain Unthank's dread knights confiscated it and locked it away in the Barbican just as she was getting ready to fix the last few bugs.
I would ask about the 'dread knights', but a noise from the forge gets our attention, and we see the flaming coal and clinker transform into two small humanoids that advance towards us. Bertild smashes one of them with her hammer, and my ghostly sword puts paid to the other. Nevertheless, it is now obvious that this place is no longer secure, so I leave before anything else can manifest.
On my first attempt at this book, one of my non-final deaths occurred because I visited a couple of other places within the Outer Ward in the wrong order. That is not a mistake I plan to repeat, so I now head for the kennels. This does cause most of the dogs to get scared and make a lot of noise, but my own hunting hound is delighted to see me despite my changed circumstances, and would probably be jumping all over me and licking me if I weren't so intangible. He accompanies me as I leave the kennels, and will harass any opponents I face (except for the incorporeal ones, whom he can't affect), subjecting them to an Attack Strength penalty. The encouragement provided by this faithful companion also provides a boost to my Will (and a Luck bonus I can't use).
Now I can proceed to the guard barracks. In there, I eventually make it to the Captain's quarters. Captain Cador senses my presence and draws a sword, the silvered sigils on the blade suggesting that this is a weapon that could harm me (and the memory of my first attempt at the book confirming that it can inflict lethal damage on my spectral form).
I attempt to calm him, and he says I look like a 'brave knight' he knows to be dead. For some reason I am puzzled at his knowledge, even though I've already been informed that rumours of my death are already spreading through the castle. Still, the book doesn't go as far as giving me the option of assuming that he's in league with the Death Acolyte and leaping to the attack. Instead, I just explain that I'm my ghost and ask for help. The Captain is not convinced that I'm not a supernatural doppelganger, and insists that I prove my identity by naming my dog. The one who's probably gazing adoringly at me while wagging his tail right now.
Having been to the kennels, I do know the dog's name (not that I should have needed to encounter him before I could remember it - a Temple of Terror-style name-drop in the introductory passage would have been fairer, especially as it mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing my 'faithful hound' again), so I am able to convince the Captain that I am who I claim to be. Good thing the dog isn't wearing a collar with a name tag on, or the Captain might have suspected that I read it there, and demanded some really obscure bit of trivia as evidence.
I explain that I'm here to avenge my murder, and the Captain reveals that he and his guards are no longer allowed beyond the Outer Ward, as Chamberlain Unthank gave the responsibility of patrolling the inner regions of the castle to a mysterious order of knights around a year ago. The Captain then asks how he can help, and I tell him that I need information. As I'm beginning to wonder if leaving Unthank in charge of running the place while I was away may have been a bad idea, I decide to try and find out what else he's been up to in my absence.
Firstly the Chamberlain banned everyone but himself from going into the Keep. Rumour had it that he was spending most of his time searching the castle archives for something, and then it got out that he was building some kind of machine. Then the thirteen knights turned up on a stereotypically dark and stormy night, claiming to be seeking shelter, and Unthank invited them in, banished the established guards to the Outer Ward, and set his enigmatic new buddies to guard the Barbican. There's something locked in there that he doesn't want anyone else to touch. It feels as if events have been building towards something, and all indications point to the climax occurring tonight.
Cador goes on to admit that he believes there to be evil afoot, and he regrets not having been strong enough to take action back when it started to brew. He adds that Unthank is going ahead with the celebratory feast in spite of the death of the person whose return it should be celebrating (and the Outer Ward guards are not invited), and casually mentions a numerical combination that he managed to find out. Having finally run out of revelations, he wishes me well and dismisses me.
Is it worth checking out the stables? I decide to chance it. The horses don't react to my presence a lot better than the dogs did. One of them is saddled, and after a moment I realise that it's the one I was riding before I was ambushed. This gets me wondering what has become of my corpse, which seems a bit random - given that the miserable nag threw me and ran off before I got murdered, its presence here merely indicates that it knew the way home unaided. I suppose its riderless arrival might have prompted people to send out a search party, but the leap from 'That's my horse!' to 'Where's my body?' is still not that obvious.
On a more serious note, an equine phantom materialises in the stable, and it's even more agitated than the live horses. This spectral stallion is blocking my exit, so in order to move on, I must either fight it or try to calm it. Despite the risk that it might inspire a really inadvisable crossover, I try my skill as a ghost horse whisperer. Exerting my Will, I successfully pacify the skittish spook. There's nothing else I can do here right now, but knowing the whereabouts of a steed I could ride in my incorporeal state may be useful at a later juncture.
I think I've achieved as much as is worth achieving in the Outer Ward, so it's time to proceed to the Inner, which means traversing the Barbican and probably encountering Unthank's ominous knights. That will have to wait for another blog entry, though, as I will be travelling away to spend Christmas with the family in less than 12 hours, and don't know how much access I'll have to the internet while I'm gone, so it makes sense to conclude this instalment of the playthrough here and post it now.
Saturday 15 December 2018
Anything's Nothing - When You're Dead
Somewhat belatedly, I resume my attempt at Night of the Necromancer. Apologies for the delay: life is a bit busy and tough, and for some reason Night just doesn't grab me in the way that many gamebooks do. Usually such lack of engagement arises from some flaw in the book, but there's nothing significantly wrong with this one. Yes, there are minor errors here and there, and they annoy me that bit more because the book and I are not simpatico, but I've got on fine with some gamebooks that are more of a mess than this one.
Anyway, it's time I stopped grumbling and got on with the playthrough. If you haven't already read the first part, I would recommend that you do so now, so as to avoid confusion when I start talking about how many times I've been killed on this playthrough.
I find myself by a grey desolation of rock and sand, with storm clouds rumbling in a grey sky. I'm likely to wind up here several times, each successive visit netting me at least one new codeword and bringing me closer to ultimate failure (and further from the irritating typo in the final sentence of the section).
The Dead Winds bear me across the barren landscape towards a gate. Sensing it to be a point of no return, I try to fight their pull in an attempt to return to the land of the living and resume my investigation into the matter of who had me murdered and why. Thanks to the discouragement provided by the Ghoul King, my Will isn't quite strong enough, and I am drawn closer to the gate, at which point I am attacked by an incorporeal being with far too many mouths.
Some of my Stamina is restored for the fight against the Sin Eater. Exactly how much is unclear, as the amount is partially based on half of my Initial Stamina, and the book doesn't say whether halves round up or down. My Skill is lower than the Sin Eater's (that encounter with the Ghoul King just keeps taking its toll), so I lose the fight regardless of what my Stamina went up to.
The Sin Eater flings the savaged remnants of my spirit closer to the gate, and a figure resembling the classic Grim Reaper appears, proclaiming itself to be the Watcher at the Gate. The Watcher produces an hourglass, and is a little confused to see that there is still a significant amount of sand in the top bulb. Unsure why I'm here before my time, the Watcher asks me what I seek. 'Answers' is, alas, not on the list of options (nor is 'Motivation to keep reading', but that's my problem). I'm not going to deliberately choose badly just to hasten my failure, so I'll see if the Watcher considers 'Justice' valid grounds for sending me back. The Watcher asks what I mean by that, narrowing down the list to just two alternatives, and as 'Revenge' tends to be a villain thing, I go for 'A second chance'.
The Watcher finds this suggestion laughable. But, as Luck would have it, the amusement I have thus provided puts the Watcher in such a good mood that a stroke of the scythe sends me back to the mortal realm, albeit with a warning that we shall meet again. I find myself back on the beach, my randomly generated stats at full, and my Will increased. Neither the Hermit nor the Sea Demon are around, so I decide to head inland.
Before long I reach a crossroads. It's still a little early to be heading for home, and I'm not enough of a James Herbert fan to leap at the opportunity to visit the village of Sleath, so I decide to see how many of my kind are resident in the local graveyard. The place turns out to be pretty neglected and in poor condition, several tombs showing signs of having been broken into (or out of).
A few ghosts approach me, asking for help.They don't want to be here, but some malicious entity is preventing them from moving on to the land of the dead. In life, I would have had some degree of responsibility for the well-being of the locals. Even if my duty to the people in the region ended with my death (which is by no means guaranteed, given that on more than one occasion someone has been voted into political office despite having died before the election), my ghost may have an obligation as regards the needs of other ghosts in the area, so I agree to fight the fiend that holds them here (alliterative apparition that I am).
A tremor passes through the graveyard, and the ghosts vanish. A mound of coffin-containing earth rears up and takes on roughly humanoid semblance, and I draw my spectral sword and attack the Grave Golem. This could be my most perilous battle yet: while my opponent and I have equal Skill scores, something bad will happen if the Golem ever wins two consecutive Attack Rounds. As it turns out, the sentient cemetery only manages to land one blow on me all fight, so I don't fall victim to its malign power. The ghosts freed by the defeat of the Golem share their power with me before passing over, restoring the Stamina I lost in the fight and providing another boost to my Will.
From here I can only proceed to Sleath. As I approach the village, moaning voices and a phosphorescent mist herald an assault by a cloud of tormented faces, all with closed eyes. The evil afoot in the region is causing the villagers to have nightmares, and the conglomeration of their bad dreams has become another ethereal being. My Will is more than proof against its insanity-inducing onslaught, but the subsequent fight against the Phantasmagoria does not go as well as the battle in the graveyard. I still win, but take significantly more damage along the way, and the power I absorb from its dissipating essence is not sufficient to restore me to full health.
At this time of day the only part of the village showing any signs of activity is the Cockcrow Inn. There are several other places of potential interest, though: a neglected shrine constructed upon the tomb of some long-forgotten champion of Good, the tacky-looking tent housing itinerant fortune teller Madame Zelda, and the Burgomaster's house.
For starters I check out the tent, which has internal partitions. In the first section I find a circular table with a crystal ball on top. Moving through to the back, I find Madame Zelda herself, who appears to have turned in for the night without bothering to take off her veils or make-up. Her reaction to my presence suggests that she's like Whoopi Goldberg's character from Ghost: possessed of some psychic ability, but not aware of it, and relying on trickery to con her clients into accepting whatever vague prognostications she can think up. The text insinuates that there may be some connection between her and the Death Acolyte who killed me, on the grounds that he had an amethyst sphere and she owns a crystal ball, but that's mighty flimsy evidence, as I know that a crystal ball is one of the principal items of paraphernalia for the stereotypical fortune teller.
Even if Zelda is a charlatan, she may be capable of causing me harm, so I make no threatening moves. Once she's finished amazedly quoting that line from The Sixth Sense, she asks how she can help me. I explain my situation, and she takes me to the crystal ball. Gazing into it, she gives me a little ambiguous bunkum, and then some other entity actually starts to speak through her, telling me that the dead shall soon stalk the land, I must seek the metal-worker and the iron man, and I should be wary of the man who believes only in Good, but I may find salvation at the court of the Liche Queen.
The crystal ball turns black, the table begins to shake, and I get another warning that the Lord of Shadows is coming. Then the crystal ball explodes and Zelda comes back to herself, wondering what just happened. I refrain from explaining and make a quick departure, reflecting that her life is liable to become a lot more interesting from now on, assuming she survives whatever horrors the Lord of Shadows intends to visit upon the land.
Next I head for the shrine, only to find that it is protected by a spiritual barrier that causes me pain when I try to cross it. I endeavour to force my way through, but my Will isn't quite strong enough, so I have to abandon the attempt.
Oh well, time to see if they serve spirits at the inn. The door is closed, but my Poltergeist ability enables me to fling it open. As the patrons all turn to see who the new arrival is, it strikes me that, being a ghost, I may not be particularly welcome here. This realisation, combined with a couple of successful rolls, leads to my spontaneously manifesting the ability to turn invisible.
This is a good thing, as the occupants of the inn include Josef van Richten, the ghost hunter mentioned by the hermit, and eavesdropping on van Richten's conversation with his avaricious servant Streng enables me to ascertain that he is the kind of zealot who makes no distinction between benign and malign ghosts, so an encounter with him is not likely to go well.
As I recall, visiting the Burgomaster's house merely leads to an encounter with the resident ghosts, who look upon newly-arrived spectres in much the same way that a Daily Express-reading Brexiteer thinks of the non-British. There is little to be gained, and much to be lost, by meeting with them, so I shall leave them for van Richten to deal with, and move on from the village to the castle.
That seems an appropriate point at which to pause the narrative and post this entry, thereby reassuring any readers who might be concerned that the longer-than-usual gap between posts presages another hiatus of almost a year. I hope to update again before Christmas.
Anyway, it's time I stopped grumbling and got on with the playthrough. If you haven't already read the first part, I would recommend that you do so now, so as to avoid confusion when I start talking about how many times I've been killed on this playthrough.
I find myself by a grey desolation of rock and sand, with storm clouds rumbling in a grey sky. I'm likely to wind up here several times, each successive visit netting me at least one new codeword and bringing me closer to ultimate failure (and further from the irritating typo in the final sentence of the section).
The Dead Winds bear me across the barren landscape towards a gate. Sensing it to be a point of no return, I try to fight their pull in an attempt to return to the land of the living and resume my investigation into the matter of who had me murdered and why. Thanks to the discouragement provided by the Ghoul King, my Will isn't quite strong enough, and I am drawn closer to the gate, at which point I am attacked by an incorporeal being with far too many mouths.
Some of my Stamina is restored for the fight against the Sin Eater. Exactly how much is unclear, as the amount is partially based on half of my Initial Stamina, and the book doesn't say whether halves round up or down. My Skill is lower than the Sin Eater's (that encounter with the Ghoul King just keeps taking its toll), so I lose the fight regardless of what my Stamina went up to.
The Sin Eater flings the savaged remnants of my spirit closer to the gate, and a figure resembling the classic Grim Reaper appears, proclaiming itself to be the Watcher at the Gate. The Watcher produces an hourglass, and is a little confused to see that there is still a significant amount of sand in the top bulb. Unsure why I'm here before my time, the Watcher asks me what I seek. 'Answers' is, alas, not on the list of options (nor is 'Motivation to keep reading', but that's my problem). I'm not going to deliberately choose badly just to hasten my failure, so I'll see if the Watcher considers 'Justice' valid grounds for sending me back. The Watcher asks what I mean by that, narrowing down the list to just two alternatives, and as 'Revenge' tends to be a villain thing, I go for 'A second chance'.
The Watcher finds this suggestion laughable. But, as Luck would have it, the amusement I have thus provided puts the Watcher in such a good mood that a stroke of the scythe sends me back to the mortal realm, albeit with a warning that we shall meet again. I find myself back on the beach, my randomly generated stats at full, and my Will increased. Neither the Hermit nor the Sea Demon are around, so I decide to head inland.
Before long I reach a crossroads. It's still a little early to be heading for home, and I'm not enough of a James Herbert fan to leap at the opportunity to visit the village of Sleath, so I decide to see how many of my kind are resident in the local graveyard. The place turns out to be pretty neglected and in poor condition, several tombs showing signs of having been broken into (or out of).
A few ghosts approach me, asking for help.They don't want to be here, but some malicious entity is preventing them from moving on to the land of the dead. In life, I would have had some degree of responsibility for the well-being of the locals. Even if my duty to the people in the region ended with my death (which is by no means guaranteed, given that on more than one occasion someone has been voted into political office despite having died before the election), my ghost may have an obligation as regards the needs of other ghosts in the area, so I agree to fight the fiend that holds them here (alliterative apparition that I am).
A tremor passes through the graveyard, and the ghosts vanish. A mound of coffin-containing earth rears up and takes on roughly humanoid semblance, and I draw my spectral sword and attack the Grave Golem. This could be my most perilous battle yet: while my opponent and I have equal Skill scores, something bad will happen if the Golem ever wins two consecutive Attack Rounds. As it turns out, the sentient cemetery only manages to land one blow on me all fight, so I don't fall victim to its malign power. The ghosts freed by the defeat of the Golem share their power with me before passing over, restoring the Stamina I lost in the fight and providing another boost to my Will.
From here I can only proceed to Sleath. As I approach the village, moaning voices and a phosphorescent mist herald an assault by a cloud of tormented faces, all with closed eyes. The evil afoot in the region is causing the villagers to have nightmares, and the conglomeration of their bad dreams has become another ethereal being. My Will is more than proof against its insanity-inducing onslaught, but the subsequent fight against the Phantasmagoria does not go as well as the battle in the graveyard. I still win, but take significantly more damage along the way, and the power I absorb from its dissipating essence is not sufficient to restore me to full health.
At this time of day the only part of the village showing any signs of activity is the Cockcrow Inn. There are several other places of potential interest, though: a neglected shrine constructed upon the tomb of some long-forgotten champion of Good, the tacky-looking tent housing itinerant fortune teller Madame Zelda, and the Burgomaster's house.
For starters I check out the tent, which has internal partitions. In the first section I find a circular table with a crystal ball on top. Moving through to the back, I find Madame Zelda herself, who appears to have turned in for the night without bothering to take off her veils or make-up. Her reaction to my presence suggests that she's like Whoopi Goldberg's character from Ghost: possessed of some psychic ability, but not aware of it, and relying on trickery to con her clients into accepting whatever vague prognostications she can think up. The text insinuates that there may be some connection between her and the Death Acolyte who killed me, on the grounds that he had an amethyst sphere and she owns a crystal ball, but that's mighty flimsy evidence, as I know that a crystal ball is one of the principal items of paraphernalia for the stereotypical fortune teller.
Even if Zelda is a charlatan, she may be capable of causing me harm, so I make no threatening moves. Once she's finished amazedly quoting that line from The Sixth Sense, she asks how she can help me. I explain my situation, and she takes me to the crystal ball. Gazing into it, she gives me a little ambiguous bunkum, and then some other entity actually starts to speak through her, telling me that the dead shall soon stalk the land, I must seek the metal-worker and the iron man, and I should be wary of the man who believes only in Good, but I may find salvation at the court of the Liche Queen.
The crystal ball turns black, the table begins to shake, and I get another warning that the Lord of Shadows is coming. Then the crystal ball explodes and Zelda comes back to herself, wondering what just happened. I refrain from explaining and make a quick departure, reflecting that her life is liable to become a lot more interesting from now on, assuming she survives whatever horrors the Lord of Shadows intends to visit upon the land.
Next I head for the shrine, only to find that it is protected by a spiritual barrier that causes me pain when I try to cross it. I endeavour to force my way through, but my Will isn't quite strong enough, so I have to abandon the attempt.
Oh well, time to see if they serve spirits at the inn. The door is closed, but my Poltergeist ability enables me to fling it open. As the patrons all turn to see who the new arrival is, it strikes me that, being a ghost, I may not be particularly welcome here. This realisation, combined with a couple of successful rolls, leads to my spontaneously manifesting the ability to turn invisible.
This is a good thing, as the occupants of the inn include Josef van Richten, the ghost hunter mentioned by the hermit, and eavesdropping on van Richten's conversation with his avaricious servant Streng enables me to ascertain that he is the kind of zealot who makes no distinction between benign and malign ghosts, so an encounter with him is not likely to go well.
As I recall, visiting the Burgomaster's house merely leads to an encounter with the resident ghosts, who look upon newly-arrived spectres in much the same way that a Daily Express-reading Brexiteer thinks of the non-British. There is little to be gained, and much to be lost, by meeting with them, so I shall leave them for van Richten to deal with, and move on from the village to the castle.
That seems an appropriate point at which to pause the narrative and post this entry, thereby reassuring any readers who might be concerned that the longer-than-usual gap between posts presages another hiatus of almost a year. I hope to update again before Christmas.
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