Now You Are In For It At Last

I bought issue 18 of Proteus, Brian Allanson’s Into the Dragon’s Domain, on the way to school. Probably at the newsagent’s closer to home, as the sequence I remember reading while waiting outside the music room was some way into the adventure. As I recall, I failed my first attempt by failing to learn that, in the world in which Domain is set, Wyverns have a lethal sting. Well, failing to learn it before I encountered the Wyvern. I found out soon enough when I got into a fight with the beast – and that was the last thing that that character did learn.

Domain is the one Proteus adventure that I might not have won when I played through the series in order to review the lot back in the noughties. I say ‘might not’ because of something on the letters page. Somebody had written in to ask why Dexterity was now being generated by adding 6 to the roll of a die, rather than 8 as in the first couple of issues, and the response was that it made the adventures 'more realistic (i.e. harder!)' but readers could go back to adding 8 if they preferred.

Now, the climactic fight in Domain is harsh. The eponymous Dragon has 16 Dexterity, and the adventure provides no means by which the player can increase their Dexterity above the starting score. Depending on the route taken to the endgame, the player can either gain a weapon that does double damage, but automatically lose at least 4 Strength at the start of the fight, or have a chance of commencing battle at full Strength, but only do normal damage, thus needing to win twice as many rounds against a superior opponent.

On my many attempts at the final battle, I played by the rules set out at the front of the magazine, but also made a note of how things would have gone if I’d been using the variant permitted on the letters page. Every character with a Dexterity of 1d6+6 died. On one occasion, the 1d6+8 variant narrowly managed to defeat the Dragon. Even if I can still remember the optimal route through the adventure, I think it unlikely that I’ll do any better this time round.

As should already be obvious, the primary antagonist in this adventure is a Dragon. Known as Dagmor the Terrible, he lives in a system of caves not far from the village of Mittelden, and has been making life that bit harsher for the locals by preying on them and their livestock. He also has the ability to charm people, unless they happen to be wearing a certain magic helmet that, for inadequately explained reasons, is stored somewhere in the cave network – and not buried in the mound of treasure on which Dagmor likes to chill out, where it could be kept out of the way of bold adventurers seeking to add ‘Dragonslayer’ to their résumé.

Even more bizarrely, Dagmor has a number of prisoners, including a hermit who can teach people the essential ingredients for a Potion of Fire Resistance, and an alchemist who will brew up such a potion if provided with those ingredients, yet he has never charmed them into ceasing to do this. It’s not as if this is the only piece of interactive fiction to indulge in such absurd contrivances but the daftness of it all does seem to stand out that bit more here, perhaps because the straightforwardness of the plot does little to distract the reader from details that make little sense.

Anyway, the combination of the challenge posed by Dagmor and the substantial reward being offered to his slayer has inspired me to try and kill the Dragon. This, as indicated a few paragraphs above, would be unwise even if I had the highest stats attainable, and the dice aren't that favourable. Even allocating rolls (and gambling on not needing to make much use of the third attribute), I can't improve on:
Dexterity 11 (13 if I do as permitted on the letters page)
Strength 21 (or 24)
Fate/Fortune 7
There's no ceiling on Fate/Fortune, so I might be able to push that to a more respectable score if I get lucky, but that Dexterity is not going to be enough. Better than the 7 (or 9) it would have been if I'd taken the dice as they fell, but comparatives of doomedness are largely irrelevant.

Stopping off for supplies in the hamlet of Yarrowdale, I meet a villager in his sixties who proves remarkably well-informed about the Dragon. He claims that he just happened to come across an entrance to the caves many years ago, and was inspired to make researching Dagmor and his environs into a hobby, but it's still quite a stretch to accept that he's been able to find out as much as he passes on to me. In addition to telling me the way to the caves, he warns me about Dagmor's powers, mentions the oddities described above, and points out that somewhere in the caves are a couple of items it might be worth trying to find: the Dragonshield, forged from the scale of another Dragon, and Albus the Avenger, a sword especially created for killing Dragons.

Proceeding to the cave entrance, I spot the Hobgoblin guard whose careless monologuing revealed to Mister Info-Dump that this is a way in to Dagmor's lair. Today the guard is taking a nap, so I think I'll sneak up on him and see if a little threatening behaviour can make him loose-lipped again. The text includes a rather nice line about Hobgoblins being 'occasionally prone' to good manners when held at sword-point. I am offered a choice of things to ask, and I think that finding out what can be found in the immediate vicinity of the entrance might be a good start.

The Hobgoblin tells me that there's a cavern with three exits nearby, and the leftmost one leads to a Minotaur. With a little encouragement, I get him to also remember that a 'strange old man' can be found on the right. That's the extent of his local knowledge, and as he can't be trusted to keep silent about my presence, I tie him up and gag him. Killing him in cold blood is not an option, and I see little point in getting into an avoidable fight.

Before long I get to the cavern. It's illuminated by torches, and I take one and have a quick search before moving on, finding a sack that contains a glass eye. This adventure is proving a little quirkier than I remembered it being.

The old man is likely to be another source of handy hints, so I seek him first. The tunnel leads to a door, and I knock on it. "Who is it now?" grumbles a voice, and I love the implication that the man is a bit fed up of being repeatedly disturbed by doomed adventurers. I claim to be a friend, and footsteps approach the door, which opens to reveal a man wearing red robes and an eyepatch. He invites me in and I miss out on something on account of not having eavesdropped before I knocked. Probably an opportunity to give him his lost eye and receive some reward.

The man asks why I consider myself a friend, and I explain that I mean to kill the Dragon who holds him prisoner. He tells me that, if I wish to reduce the effect of Dagmor's fiery breath, I will need to take some amber, a Minotaur horn and the tip of a Wyvern's tail to the potion-maker. Along with this advice, I am given a couple of section numbers to note down, so I can act on this information when in a position to do so. It's more blatant than the standard gamebook tricks for leading readers to otherwise inaccessible sections, but some readers might prefer that approach. 

The man also gives me a bead necklace, for which the Fire Imps will be willing to trade me some amber, and opens a secret door in the west wall that will lead me to Fire Imp territory. I have the option of assuming that the secret door is a trap and going north instead, but that seems a bit daft. It could work if some peculiarity of the Dragon's charm spell were to make his prisoners intermittently lie, with some tell-tale signifier that would enable the well-informed player to distinguish between fact and falsehood, but that would be too subtle for this adventure.

I go along the secret passage, which ends in another concealed door. This leads into a faintly glowing chamber with exits to north, south and west, and after a moment I spot two small humanoids on a ledge. They have in turn noticed me, so I wave the beads at them and point at the amber necklace that Mr. Allanson neglected to mention when describing the Imps.

There's a delightful little twist here: having conducted the trade in the manner of a colonialist explorer patronising aboriginals, I get laughed at by the Imp, who eloquently explains that he knows why I'm here, and wishes me well in my endeavours. To further assist me, he provides a key to the door at the end of the passage leading west, beyond which he has never dared to venture.

Thanking him, I head west. The passage ends at a T-junction, with the aforementioned door set into the west wall. I unlock it and find another passage, this one leading to an apparently deserted chamber with litter on the floor. Upon closer inspection, some of that litter turns out to be human bones, and a snorting from behind me draws my attention to the Minotaur that I somehow failed to notice while performing what must have been a very perfunctory examination of the place.

Owing to several poor rolls, I take a bit of a battering in the ensuing fight. Nevertheless, the Minotaur takes twice as much damage, which is enough to kill it. I eat to restore some of my lost Strength, and the text prompts me to make use of one of the numbers I noted down earlier (not that I needed the reminder). I remove one of the horns, which comes with another number to write down (as did the amber), and again I am simply told to make a note of the number - no 'there are this many lumps of amber in the necklace' or 'you estimate the horn to be so many centimetres long'.

Returning to the junction, I can only go north, though some awkwardly-phrased text indicates that east would have been an option if I'd not already been that way. That implies that it is possible to break down the door if you don't have the key - but I'd have had neither reason nor opportunity to take the horn if I hadn't spoken with the old man first, so I was right to go the long way round.

The passage twists and turns and leads to a descending flight of steps. I head down to a chamber containing a pool of water, with exits to the north-east and north-west. Taking a closer look at the pool, I wind up drinking from it, and regain the rest of the Strength I lost to the Minotaur. Now I must leave, and it's a blind choice.

The north-east exit takes me to another door, with a little light shining through from the other side. Listening at it proves uninformative, so I go through into a dusty, cobweb-shrouded room. A mouldering tapestry hangs on the wall, a wooden casket sits on a table, and a glass case sits on a stone column in the centre of the room. If this is where I think it is, I should leave the glass case until last.

The casket is cleaner than the rest of the room, suggesting that someone has recently been doing something with it. I cautiously raise the lid - but not cautiously enough. Still, the damage done by the darts which hit me is far from lethal. Inside the casket is a sealed scroll, which I open. On it is written a message indicating that the helm of protection is in the glass case, followed by a straightforward numerical puzzle that provides the correct combination for opening the case.

For thoroughness' sake I check out the tapestry, which tells me that I'll need to find the scroll before I try to get into the glass case. Having already found it, I automatically proceed to the case, and it turns out to be a good thing that I did look at the tapestry, as I wouldn't be able to find the concealed switch on the side of the case without a hint provided by the tapestry. The switch causes half a dozen columns to appear on the glass, each with a different number of helms in it. I touch the columns corresponding to the digits of the solution to the puzzle, and one side of the case slides open, allowing me to take the helm within.

My familiarity with gamebook foibles enables me to make ominous inferences from the options for leaving the room. I shan't explain the thought processes in tedious detail, but I think I should have taken the other exit from the chamber with the pool, and now I'm probably going to miss out on something helpful. Still, there is a slim chance that I might be able to get what I've missed without consequently missing something else, so I'll give that a shot.

Taking the north-west exit, I follow a meandering passage to a firelit chamber, and the description of the exits is not encouraging. Still, now that I'm here, I may as well have a proper look around. In an alcove is a stone table, with a glyph-inscribed marble box and a cloth-wrapped rectangular object on it. I pick up the cloth bundle, which contains a book. There's writing on the cover in both the language I speak and glyphs like the carving on the box. Turning my attention to the box, I attempt to decipher the inscription with the aid of the book.

This puzzle is a little more sophisticated than most of the substitution ciphers found in gamebooks, as there are a few characters that represent combinations of letters in addition to the 26 corresponding to the Roman alphabet. Not all of these combination characters appear in the inscription, so either there are more of these puzzles to come or the author went above and beyond what was essential for solving this one. And there's a second inscription inside the box, but that doesn't use those characters either. Following the directions, I use some of the powder contained in the box, which induces a vision that provides a couple of hints about dealing with Rock Trolls (and a section number to turn to if I should have cause to act on this information). Nice to know, but maybe not as helpful as what I'd have discovered if I'd taken the other exit from the room with the helm in.

I have no choice but to take the exit to the north. This leads to another door, and listening indicates only that the room beyond may be occupied. It is, by an Ogre who's roasting meat on a spit. He asks what I want, and I can be honest, rude or aggressive. I'll tell the truth. The Ogre observes that others have come to kill Dagmor and failed, and indicates that he'd like to be left alone. I risk asking what he knows about his immediate environs, and he tells me that a Wyvern lives to the east, and he'd very much like it if I could bother that instead of him.

As I turn towards the exit leading east, the Ogre attempts a sneak attack, but on this occasion I succeed at the Fate/Fortune roll and dodge the knife he throws at me. Over the course of the ensuing battle he manages to land a couple of lucky blows on me, but once he's dead, I decide not to let his food go to waste, and it restores as much Strength as I lost in the fight.

Now I can go east unhindered, and find myself in a chamber with a hole in the roof, through which the sun is shining. Having been forewarned of what I can expect to encounter here, I stay close to the wall in order to reduce the number of angles from which I can be attacked. The sound of beating wings heralds the arrival of the Wyvern, the remnants of its last kill still in its mouth, and I climb up to the ledge on which it has perched. My Fate/Fortune lets me down and I stumble, attracting the Wyvern's attention and missing out on a chance to sever its sting before battle commences. Not that it matters in the end: the Wyvern never gets a fighting power sufficient to use the sting on me, and I don't lose a single round in this fight.

After helping myself to the tip of the tail, I leave the chamber. The path forks again. Maybe north-east will be a good idea this time... And it leads to a torchlit chamber containing both the Dragonshield and a Rock Troll, the latter apparently napping on the floor. I say 'apparently' because that vision told me that Rock Trolls often feign sleep in order to surprise their enemies. An amusingly blatant instance of section number padding follows: I am asked if I want to make use of any knowledge I might have gained regarding Rock Trolls, and when I turn to the section indicated, it tells me to turn to the section number I was told to note down earlier.

While my vision-derived knowledge enables me to avoid the Rock Troll's ambush, my mediocre Fate/Fortune denies me the opportunity to exploit the weakness also highlighted in the vision, so I have to fight. Despite being described as having a low Dexterity, the Rock Troll actually has a higher Dexterity than the Minotaur and the Wyvern, and I take a bit of a beating before subduing it and helping myself to the Dragonshield.

Continuing on my way, I reach a dead end, and a trapdoor opens beneath me. Another failed Fate/Fortune roll causes me to take some damage from the fall, so I eat another meal before moving on. There's a door to the north, so I check that out. Listening at it reveals that something is bubbling in the room beyond, and somebody is pacing back and forth. I must have hit my head quite hard in the fall, as I have no idea what could be bubbling even though I'm well aware that there's a potion maker living somewhere in these caves.

I knock on the door, and the thought processes outlined in the text back up my theory that my character is now mildly concussed. A voice tells me to "Come in, if you must!", so I enter. The bubbling comes from a cauldron, and the occupant of the room looks irritable, so I apologise for disturbing him. He asks why I'm here, and I risk giving him a straight answer - there is also the option of not mentioning my quest, and just asking if he's the potion maker. The man warns me of an evil individual who lives in a blue glowing cave and likes to kill outsiders, and is rumoured to be the keeper of a powerful magic sword.

I can follow up this lead or stay and chat a while longer, so I choose to stick around. In the course of the ensuing conversation I learn that he is the potion maker after all, so I provide him with the ingredients I've collected, and he sets to work blending them into the potion. When he's finished, he reveals that he is cursed to remain in this room as long as Dagmor lives, so succeeding in my quest is all I need do to repay him for his assistance.

Before moving on, I eat again, as I remember from past attempts that the man the potion maker mentioned is a dangerous opponent, and I'm liable to take a lot of damage fighting him. That is, if I do encounter him: the passage forks again, and there's no mention of a distant blue glow either way, so I'm going to have to guess which direction to take.

On reflection, I may have been wrong about that first north-easterly passage being a bad choice. I have the helm, the potion and the Dragonshield, and the only reason I don't have Albus the Avenger is that I haven't yet got far enough to have the opportunity. I got the warnings about the Wyvern and the Rock Troll, and I've seen no indication of there having been other clues that I didn't find. So what could I have missed out on?

Well, if north-east was okay the first time and the better option the second time, will it be the right way to go again on this occasion? My gamebook manager has no data on the section for going that way, so that's a no. This will be a learning experience, then.

The passage shows signs of not having been used in a while. Some way along it, I find an alcove, which I investigate. Scraping away the dirt and slime on the wall, I find an inscription that poses a riddle. Simple stuff, and answering it provides me with a ring of fire resistance. Not as useful as the sword would have been, but better than nothing.

Continuing along the passage, I reach a large chamber, littered with corpses. Oh, and in the middle there's a whacking great mound of treasure with a massive Dragon squatting on it. Funny that I didn't notice that first.

After downing the potion, I advance on the Dragon. The combination of Dragonshield, potion and ring will reduce the damage his fiery breath does by four quarters, but the extra damage I'd be doing if I had Albus the Avenger would still give me better odds of winning the fight.

Dagmor looks into my eyes, but the helm protects me from his attempts at charming me. He then bathes me with flames, which, as noted above, do zero damage, before attacking with tooth and claw. And, as expected, the Dexterity disparity does for me again. I win one round of combat (and with the alternate stats I'd have managed two) before being added to the assortment of corpses in the chamber.

An unsurprising outcome, but the adventure proved a little more enjoyable than anticipated, with a couple of instances of wit that I'd previously failed to appreciate. Not one of Proteus' finest, but nowhere near as awful as some others, even with that killer of a final fight.