Several Different Crimes

While Ian Livingstone has written several new FF books to mark noteworthy anniversaries of the original publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Steve Jackson didn’t contribute any similarly celebratory titles to the range until 2022’s Secrets of Salamonis. This book came out at the same time as Ian Livingstone’s Shadow of the Giants, but series numbering places Secrets before Shadow.

I purchased both books online, from separate sellers as it worked out cheaper that way, and actually received Shadow first. Still, in the forum challenge for which I made my first attempts at both books, the randomiser selected Secrets first, so I did play them in the ‘correct’ order.

Character creation is handled differently from usual – no rolling, just a set of baseline stats that start out lower than what is normally the minimum, and will be increased at a later stage (as long as I make it that far). This is because my character is not yet a seasoned adventurer, and spends the early stages of Secrets attempting to learn suitable skills and acquire a quality known as Amonour, which can be converted into additional points of Skill, Stamina and Luck when I have completed my training.

Amonour was introduced in the short-lived series of FF novels that came out in the late eighties and early nineties. Protagonist Chadda Darkmane, one of the least likeable fictional heroes I’ve ever encountered in a book, was obsessed with it. It’s to do with reputation, and the rules suggest that it measures how heroically and honourably the player has behaved, though actually playing Secrets showed that to be misleading. Indeed, avoiding obviously ignoble and disreputable courses of action during my first attempt at the book led to my gaining so little Amonour that even after boosting my stats, my character was still far too puny to survive for long.

That’s enough reminiscing for now: time to get started on this attempt at the adventure. When it commences, I find myself in a cave, overhearing discussion about what is to be done with me. Cautiously investigating, I discover that I am in the lair of a two-headed Ogre. Well, Ogre/Ogress, as one of its heads is female. The two heads disagree about whether or not to eat me, start insulting each other, and get into a full-blown domestic argument.

My captor(s) is/are between me and the cave mouth, but there is a wooden door set into one wall. I know from my second attempt at the book that beyond the door is the squabbling couple’s child (which raises some questions best left unasked), so I think on this occasion I’ll leave it alone and wait to see what happens if I just left the argument run its course.

A slap-fight breaks out. The male head attempts to go for a weapon, but it appears that both heads exert an equal amount of control over the legs, and their conflicting mental instructions cause a lot of stumbling around until, worn out, the whole creature falls asleep.

I could leave now, but I’m going to risk searching the cave just in case there’s anything to be gained here. And it turns out that the debris cluttering the cave does include a treasure chest, but inside the chest is only a human skull. Discouraged, I make for the exit, and tread on the inevitable dry twig. Thanks to my sub-par Luck, the Ogre wakes up (which is a bit sloppy, as I know from my first attempt at the book that attempting to sneak out of the cave while the heads are arguing leads to the same Luck roll, and it is thus possible to wake the Ogre even when it’s not sleeping).

In the ensuing fight I’m at a Skill disadvantage even before the Attack Strength penalty for having somehow misplaced my sword comes into play. I do manage to strike one blow against my foe before sustaining enough damage that the book has me flee. At the cave entrance I pass a small, pointy-eared man with orange hair and green clothes, who grins disconcertingly and waves to me.

Outside the cave is a forest. I hear a distant screeching, and the little man warns of approaching danger (using a quote from Macbeth). The sound draws closer, and I ask the man for clarification, but he has disappeared. As the volume of the screeching continues to intensify, I am overcome by fear, and start running again, hitting my head on a low branch like a pre-Mongoose Kai novice.

Regaining consciousness, I find myself on a boat, and realise that the whole business with the two-headed Ogre was a dream (though the Stamina and Luck I lost in the encounter are still gone), and the collision with a branch was inspired by my having been hit on the head by an oar. Memories return: I am on the final stages of a journey to the city of Salamonis, seeking to train as an adventurer and find fame and fortune. So far things haven’t gone particularly well for me: my backpack, containing everything I own bar the clothes I’m wearing, went missing when I boarded the boat, and I’ve not been able to afford food for days.

The boat reaches its destination mid-afternoon, mooring at a busy port. I disembark along with my fellow passengers: a barbarian named Nanoc and a herbalist who calls himself Healing Hans. A man in robes approaches and offers to sell me a map of the city, and I explain that I have no money. He takes pity on me, introduces himself as Ruznik Ulsen, and offers information free of charge. The book provides a choice of five questions to ask, and I know from my previous attempts that I’ll get to pose two of them.

I start by asking where I might find work, and Ulsen recommends checking out the Adventurers’ Guild, also advising me to try and avoid the tax collector, Odious Pinchpenny, who has a habit of overcharging people in order to supplement his wages. My second question is about local centres of learning, and I’m a little surprised to realise that I never raised this question on either of my previous attempts at the book. Ulsen tells me of Salamonis’ renowned library, and goes on to mention the school of magic in the Forest of Yore, and the Training Ground reputed to be in the Forest of Spiders (slightly stretching the definition of ‘local’, as they’re both a fair distance from the city). He also suggests that signing on to protect a merchant caravan should provide opportunities to learn fighting skills from the Strongarms, and casually reveals that he could teach me some basic magic.

An unexpected consequence of finishing with that question is that I am directed to a different section from the one to which I turned after asking my second question on my earlier attempts at Secrets. Both times I played before, Ulsen gifted me a map and mentioned a place where I could get some (rather disgusting) work and earn a little money (and some Amonour), but on this occasion he just moves on in search of a paying customer.

I could now proceed into the city, but for the moment I’ll stick around at the dock and see if there’s any way of raising a little cash here. While wandering around, I catch sight of an urchin carrying a backpack that looks a lot like my own, and pursue him, but run into a couple of guards. They warn me to watch where I’m going, and I try telling them about my pack. As usual in gamebooks, reporting stuff to the authorities doesn’t really help, but on this occasion there is an indirect benefit to be gained. After one guard expresses his apathy for my loss, the other one pushes me over, and I find a trinket on the ground. I also see assorted feral cats and dogs fighting over scraps. A wounded dog swears as it runs away and, my character evidently being a bit clueless about some aspects of this world, I assume that I only imagined that I heard the mangy cur speaking.

Nanoc the Barbarian speaks disparagingly of the guards, and we get into conversation for a bit. He’s been working as a Strongarm for the past five years, and now intends to settle down with his wife. He asks if I’m heading for the Adventurers’ Guild, and I confirm my intent to join them. The two of us head into the city together until we encounter Nanoc’s wife Tabatha and a young lad whom she introduces as his son. As the three of them head off, I hear the boy telling Nanoc that he’s four years old. I guess it’s possible that he was conceived just before Nanoc commenced his tour of duty - or maybe… Regardless, I gain a point of Amonour for having associated with an adventurous type.

Heading along the main street, I observe the decorative statues and fancy shops, and think about the amazing innovation of having the sewers underground. Either that’s another indication of how much of a hick my character is, or everybody involved in the creation of this book forgot that even the urban abscess that is Port Blacksand has a subterranean sewage network.

Catching sight of a man with a backpack like mine, I opt not to go after him, as I know from my first try at the book that nothing good would come of it. Instead, I continue on my way to the Bazaar, which is now closing for the day. One of the buildings on the outskirts is the headquarters of the Adventurers’ Guild, and outside it I see a board advertising available quests, along with a warning that only registered Guild members may undertake any of these quests, and registration costs 2 gold pieces - 2 more than I currently have.

Though a sign on the door indicates the place to be closed, I knock, attracting the attention of a stallholder who advises me to seek employment at the Slime and Swine Guttery - the same place that Ulsen would have mentioned if he’d given me a map. He also tells me where the Guttery is, so I decide to go there.

Along the way I check with passers-by that I am heading in the right direction, and am puzzled that they are so amused to learn where I’m going. Then the wind changes direction, alerting me to the fact that the place absolutely stinks. Nevertheless, I keep going, and the proprietor, a porcine-looking man named Snouter, asks if I want a job. I agree, and discover that work at the Guttery involves processing the decaying innards of dead animals to produce a foul slime that is considered a delicacy some way over to the west.

Randomness determines how well I get on with the work, and on this occasion the nausea induced by the stench of the fish guts I’m sorting is mild enough that I’m able to persevere until the end of my shift. Snouter pays me and asks if I’m looking for long-term employment here. When I decline, he comments that he needs more staff to help with a big order, and offers a small finders’ fee for anyone I manage to recruit for him. I also gain a couple of points of Amonour for doing work that even a third-assistant-rabbit-skinner would consider beneath him.

Returning to the city centre, I have the option of returning to the docks or to the Guild HQ. Going to the docks would put me into a loop, so I head back to the Guild, thereby discovering another lapse of internal continuity, as the text has me leave the docks even though I wasn’t at them.

I then get asked if I have a trinket, though not because of anything to do with the item itself. It’s just a tried-and-trusted gamebook mechanism for determining whether or not the player has had a specific encounter without making it obvious to readers who haven’t. In this instance, possession of the trinket confirms that I heard a dog speak - and now that same dog wants to talk to me.

He tells me that, despite appearances, he is in fact not a dog. He’s a human, transformed into a dog by a short-sighted Cursewitch whom his brother had insulted, and trying (with some difficulty) to raise funds to have the curse lifted. I tell him that I have no money myself, and he suggests that we work together to scam somebody. He will menace an approaching mother and children, I ‘rescue’ them from him, and we split the reward. I agree, because I need as much Amonour as I can get, and somehow trying to con a few innocent females can net me a couple of points.

The dog tells me his name is Dog before circling round to not-quite-attack the woman and her daughters. I rush in, accidentally wound Dog while pretending to fight him off, and his ‘victims’ repeatedly thank me but give nothing more tangible. Asking for money would be a bit obvious, so I mention my lost backpack as a less blatant way of indicating my reduced circumstances. The woman gives her sympathies and her name, and goes on her way. Dog comes back to tell me that our partnership is not working out, and then departs once more, and this shambolic and slightly sleazy affair costs me a point of Luck but nets me two Amonour.

Again I see and ignore the man with the backpack, and then find myself back at the Bazaar at closing time. That’s a bit of a structural error, as the text again has me knock in vain on the Guild door before receiving the same advice as before from the merchant with whom I spoke previously. Still, at this point I’m only permitted to pick a decision I haven’t previously made, so further looping is not an option, and I have no choice but to ask the stallholder if he’s looking for workers. He explains that I’d need authorisation from the Tradesmen’s Guild to get hired here, so I leave, none too happy at the way things are going.

As I walk away, I am addressed by a man in faded finery, who asks if I’m interested in doing a little grifting. Introducing himself as Rodriguez, he suggests that we enter a nearby inn and entertain some of the clientele at the expense of someone tipsy enough to have an impaired sense of judgement, and I choose to accompany him.

Proceeding to a hostelry known as the Half-Darned Sock, we find the place packed with sailors. A brawl almost breaks out between a couple of patrons, but the intervention of a Strongarm bouncer quietens things down. Rodriguez bids me find a seat while he gets in the drinks, and I find and pocket a coin, slightly scratched, so the depicted King appears to have a scar.

Rodriguez brings a couple of mugs of mead, and explains that he intends to get some free drinks and possibly a room for the night with the help of a card trick. This turns out to be a proper card trick, not a scam involving sleight of hand, and after Rodriguez puts on a bit of a show to impress the landlord and the crowd around him, thereby securing the board and lodging he sought, he passes the deck on to me to see if I’ve figured out the trick and can emulate him.

Finding a group of Dwarf miners in a corner of the bar, I get them to agree to a wager, and by correctly identifying the cards picked by my ‘mark’ I win the equivalent of a gold piece and gain another 2 points of Amonour. The cash could cover the expense of a room for the night, but in view of what I've learned from previous attempts at the book, I can think of a better use for the money. Sleeping rough costs me a point of Stamina, but I survive the night.

This seems like a good point at which to pause the narrative, so I can more or less maintain my current rate of posting here.

You Call This a War?

My purchasing of the Tunnels & Trolls Adventurers Compendium (sic) also brought to my attention the (mostly) free online T&T fanzine TrollsZine, which includes solo adventures as part of its content. I have therefore acquired an assortment of issues in order to find out if their solos are any more survivable than most.

The solo in issue 1 is Tom Grimshaw’s The Blood War at Saxon, a title which appears a poor fit for the basic premise. While the adventure is set in a place called Saxon, ‘blood war’ seems a rather strong term for a long-standing dispute over the ownership of a field, and the plot has more to do with exploring an ancient tomb than participating in armed conflict between the two families who claim that the field is theirs.

This tomb lies beneath the field in question, and was only recently revealed, following a storm. The locals believe it to contain evidence linking the land to one family’s ancestors, and as none of those involved in the feud can be relied upon to accurately report back on what may be found within, the villagers have engaged the services of an outsider to seek the proof that should settle the matter. Which is where I come in.

I’m tempted to scrap the character I generate, as over half the stats are below average, but as regards innate combat adds, he’s actually better off than the sample character in the rulebook, so I’ll give him a go. It’s not as if he could fare much worse than some others I’ve played.
Strength 14
Intelligence 5
Luck 11
Constitution 7
Dexterity 8
Charisma 5
Speed 3
His starting funds are reasonable, enabling me to equip him with the best sword he can handle (that low Dexterity limiting his options) and reasonable armour.

The villagers provide me with a lantern, and I descend into the tomb, avoiding loose stones and misplaced commas. On the wall is a worn stone plaque, which I might be able to read if I succeeded at a Saving Roll on Intelligence, but I roll so poorly that I’d fail even if my character weren’t so dull-witted.

Passages lead to east and west, and I see that the eastern turning leads to a door, so I head for that. The door opens into an ornately decorated chamber, with carvings that might be writing on the walls. As I step into the room, the door slams shut behind me, and will not budge when I try to reopen it.

A mysterious light appears in the middle of the chamber. Figuring that my character is dim enough to try touching it, I reach out a hand. The light burns me (and on this occasion I’m glad to roll a low number, as I take minimal damage), then fades away. I hear ominous laughter, see a door to the north that I don’t think was there when I entered the room, and observe a superfluous ‘and’ in the text as I move towards the newly-revealed exit.

I step out into what is referred to as a T-junction, though as it only has passages running north and west, I think it’s more of a corner with a door set into one wall. The light of the lantern reveals nothing in either direction, but west would lead back towards the entrance, so I proceed north.

Before long I reach another junction, again offering me a choice of continuing north or turning west. A door is visible to the north, while to the west I ‘can only corridor’. I hope TrollsZine has obtained the services of a decent proofreader at some point since issue 1 came out, because the sloppy writing here is very distracting.

I’m starting to wonder if this is the kind of adventure in which it’s fairly easy to proceed directly to the endgame, but the finale can only be survived with the aid of assorted plot tokens acquired by taking detours along the way. Consequently, on this occasion I head west, winding up at a crossroads. Going south is not an option, as it would take me back to the entrance (via a corridor that didn't exist when I came in). East would mean going back the way I came, and section number recognition tells me that approaching that junction from this direction will not open up the way south from it (or even give any mention of its existence). That leaves north or west.

I’ll try west again. This leads to evidence of careless playtesting, as the section to which I am directed describes me leaving a room and reaching what must be another of those ‘corner with a door’ T-junctions. The more of this adventure I read, the more I appreciate the Proteus 2 approach to charting subterranean tunnel complexes – yes, having different sections to describe the same junction depending on the direction from which you approach it can get confusing, but at least it avoids continuity errors and doesn’t omit details.

Anyway, I can return to the crossroads or I can head north to what is currently a door. Might as well go somewhere I haven’t yet been. Beyond the door is a chamber containing cobwebs and a stone coffin, with another door leading further north. The coffin may contain something that will help me in my quest. Or possibly something undead that will kill me within seconds, but that’s the adventuring life for you. Let’s see if I can even open the thing…

Randomness occurs. The fall of the die determines that I see a heap of gold inside, but when I reach for it, the lid falls shut, injuring me, and jamming so as to become impossible to reopen. Displeased, I have no choice but to leave via the door to the north. Beyond it, directions suddenly turn from compass points to left/right, but if Mr Grimshaw has been paying any attention to what he was writing, the passage beyond leads me east to a door in the north wall.

This door seems to be sealed, and I guess that it leads to the crypt I was sent to find. The only way to get past it appears to be brute force, and even with Strength being my best attribute, the odds of my succeeding at the Saving Roll aren’t great. Somewhere in the odds of one in six, though T&T’s ‘doubles reroll and add’ mechanic almost always makes probabilities that bit fuzzier than in most gaming systems.

What I roll isn’t an automatic failure, but it is still a failure. Thus, I find myself unable to open the door, and must trek back through the tunnels until I reach the exit, report my inability to resolve the ongoing dispute, and leave this part of the world in shame, never to return.

Still a better outcome than in most of the T&T solos I've played here.

A Fighting Force of Extraordinary Magnitude

My 'shorter series' rota has cycled back to The Way of the Tiger, but today I'm not replaying Avenger! even though I failed both of my previous attempts at it. The thing is, I have several gamebook-related saved searches on eBay, and on a couple of occasions last year one or other of them proved indirectly helpful. 'Indirectly' because so far the actual searches have only ever turned up listings that are outside my price range, the wrong edition (in situations where the edition matters), the wrong book, or something completely unrelated to what I sought (mainly CDs and miniatures), but sometimes the notifications of unhelpful matches included a 'You might also like' section linking to other listings, which made me aware of different books for sale that caught my interest. One such listing was for a batch of gamebooks, more than half of which I'd never heard of, and none of which duplicated books already in my collection. I placed a bid, was not outbid, and thus gained an assortment of new-to-me gamebooks, which included Ninja!, David Walters' prequel to Way. So that's what I shall be attempting - for the first time ever - in this post.

As this adventure takes place before the first one in the series, I was expecting to be using a less developed character, but that's not the case. If the combat with which Avenger! opens might be considered the final of the latest series of Who Wants to Be a Grandmaster?, this book concerns itself with the semi-finals, and takes place just under a week earlier.

So, I have been transported to the Isle of Plenty along with four other contenders. Each of us must traverse the island from east to west in no more than five days, along the way doing no evil and obtaining flags from two of the five Daimyo who rule cities on the island. Each has only the one flag, and (assuming I have correctly interpreted the word ‘peer’ in the rules) we may not take flags from our competitors, so this contest will allow between zero and two of us to qualify for the final. Additionally, only two of the Daimyo are trustworthy enough to have been informed of the contest, so I guess we have to hope that the other three are sufficiently villainous that tricking, robbing or killing them in order to get their flags won’t count as evil.

As regards skill selection (the only part of character creation into which I have any input), I think I’ll stick with what I chose during my previous attempt. Thus, I pick Poison Needles (unusable until I find some poison, but I gather that my chances of surviving one of the subsequent books are negligible if I don’t have this one, and The Way of the Tiger doesn’t hand out extra skills for completing adventures as freely as Lone Wolf does, so I can’t just grab it at the start of the next book), Immunity to Poisons and Picking Locks, Detecting and Disarming Traps, and I automatically get Shurikenjutsu.

The adventure proper commences as the ship transporting us enters the harbour. My competitors consist of Aiko (the token female, and the only other participant who’s trained as a ninja), Gorobei (the big guy who makes it through to the finals according to the start of Avenger!), Daon (my rival for the ‘most tragic backstory’ award, as the temple where he was raised was burned down during a rebellion) and Chigeru (the token senior).

We transfer to another ship, where we are greeted by a woman known to Gorobei from his previous attempt at the challenge. The very recently widowed Singing Wind explains that, following the assassination of her husband, a bandit has seized her home in a bid to assume control of the city, and she seeks our help, promising the flag to whoever recovers her late husband’s katana. Gorobei, Aiko and Daon all pledge their support, while Chigeru uses a metaphor to imply that she shouldn’t need any more help than has already been offered, and indicates that he’s off to a different city in search of its Daimyo’s flag.

Metaknowledge suggests that, regardless of who does most to help Singing Wind, it’s Gorobei who’ll claim the local flag, so it would be pragmatic to seek another one. Chigeru gives no indication of wanting me alongside him, so I opt to head to yet another city and seek the flag that’s there.

Initially I make good progress, but I pause to do some eavesdropping when a passing kabuki troupe mentions the monks of the Scarlet Mantis, followers of one of Orb's less pleasant deities. It transpires that five of them have stationed themselves at the bridge over the Ketsuiki River, on the look-out for any of my order who travel this way, most likely with the aim of making things unpleasant or lethal for participants in the challenge I am undertaking. Aware that the ‘lone martial artist prevails when significantly outnumbered’ thing tends not to work so well outside of films, I am seeking a safer way across the river when I catch sight of Aiko and Daon on the road behind me (already? Did I spend a really long time listening to talk of the Scarlet Mantis mob, or did Gorobei find some way of rapidly dissuading the others from accompanying him on the bandit-slaying sub-quest?), and feel obligated to let them know of the not-officially-part-of-the-challenge peril lying in wait at the bridge.

While Aiko favours evading the ambush as I had planned to do, Daon wants the other monks dead, and I figure that it would be helpful to learn how they knew to expect us, so we wind up devising a plan. Daon will continue along the road towards the bridge, getting the attention of the Scarlet Mantis lot, while Aiko and I stealthily approach via the river, swimming underwater and using our blowpipes as snorkels. All goes smoothly, and as Aiko and I start to climb the bridge, we hear our foes gleefully anticipating getting to kill the lone monk who’s heading their way. We launch a surprise attack that takes out two of the group, evening the odds, and each of us takes on one of the remaining enemies.

The bridge’s barricade was low enough that we could vault over it, so it’s potentially low enough that I might be able to flip my opponent into the river and potentially defeat him with a single attack. I thus open with a Teeth of the Tiger throw, but it turns out that that wouldn’t have ended the fight in one even if I’d rolled well enough for the throw to work. As it is, I miss, and my enemy gets to strike at me, but bungles his attack. I respond with a punch that lands and does a decent bit of damage, and his retaliatory kick just fails to connect. I try kicking him back, without success, and he delivers a painful punch to my kidneys. Having now ascertained that punching gives me the best chance both of hitting him and evading his riposte, I stick with that for the rest of the fight, and eventually I prevail, though I lose half my Endurance in the process.

My companions also overcome their foes, Daon finishing off his opponent with a vicious kick, while Aiko manages the ‘throw the enemy off the bridge to his death’ move denied to me by authorial fiat. It then transpires that the monk I fought was only pretending to have been reduced to -5 Endurance by my final blow (what have the readers done to incur the author’s contempt?), and attempts to flee, but a couple of well-aimed shuriken bring him down, at the same time rendering him too dead to interrogate. Daon does not have a problem with that, and gives me an Obsidian Bracelet he found on one of the corpses. The text compels me to take it, so I hope it’s less dangerous than some enforced acquisitions.

The three of us proceed to the city of Suma, observing a massive warship moored in the harbour. A little snooping establishes that the Daimyo is hosting a banquet for a Daimyo from another island, and that the flag we seek is kept under guard near the banqueting hall. Aiko observes that having ninja training will come in handy here, while Daon favours an open approach in case the local Daimyo is one of the two who are in on the contest.

I leave the two of them to get on with their own plans, and choose to try and get into the palace by disguising myself as a samurai. This involves non-lethally ambushing a real samurai and taking his armour, and I choose a member of the visiting Daimyo’s retinue, as the palace guards might become suspicious if they see a stranger wearing their colours.

The guard on the gate assumes that I’m running late because I’ve been sampling the city’s more dubious pleasures, but lets me in. However, he also calls a couple of samurai to escort me to the banquet hall. I’m not convinced I can knock them out along the way without an alarm being raised, though obviously I’ll attract a lot more attention if I reach the banquet hall and somebody realises that I’m a stranger. Still, if I can discreetly mingle for a short time and then unobtrusively slip away, I might just have a shot at getting the flag.

Alas, there are samurai from both Daimyos’ parties at the entrance to the hall, and I am identified as an impostor. Outnumbered, I make no resistance, and am taken to the cells, my ninja equipment confiscated, though my captors overlook the bracelet.

Also imprisoned here is a bruised and battered monk of the Scarlet Mantis, who reveals that the Daimyo uses ensorcelled chains to force his captives to fight to the death. Yaris, my fellow captive, had a bracelet that enabled him to resist the chain’s effect, but lost it in his last fight. He offers a temporary truce if I release him, but I’ve made no decision by the time a couple of samurai turn up and wrap a glowing chain around my neck. My autonomy is unaffected, so I’m guessing that the bracelet I wear is similar to the one that Yaris lost. As the samurai lead me away, one of them tells Yaris that he also will soon be fighting again.

The fact that he’s not being brought out along with me suggests that I’m going to be fighting someone else first. Given that the Daimyo’s tastes in entertainment imply that he’s a bad guy, I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself pitted against Daon, who is doubtless regretting his optimism. Aiko is also a possibility, if she fared no better than I at getting in unnoticed. Or maybe there is no preliminary opponent lined up, and the Daimyo just plans to subject me to a lengthy gloat before bringing Yaris in. Whichever it may be, things look grim.

The samurai lead me to the banqueting hall, where Daimyo Arai, dressed as a warrior, is practicing swordplay against a veteran samurai while, in the background, a courtesan sings about stuff that will become relevant in a few books' time. Arai expresses his outrage at the planned theft of his flag, and states that, having seen how the monks of the Scarlet Mantis fight, he now wishes for a demonstration of my order’s techniques.

More samurai bring in Daon, under the influence of a chain, and I observe that one of the serving maids is Aiko in disguise. I can use a hand signal to communicate with her, and may either ask her to try and find my ninja tools for me or send her to the cells to release Yaris. Well, the latter would be my intent, but as our sign language has its limitations, there’s no guarantee that Aiko would correctly interpret my gesture, and might not recognise that the imprisoned enemy could potentially be a short-term ally. And even if she does figure it out, the ambiguous and unconfirmed agreement between Yaris and me doesn’t cover anyone else, so he might attack Aiko if she frees him. All in all, I think there are fewer ways that regaining my equipment could go catastrophically wrong, so that’s what I request.

Aiko departs, and the Daimyo signals that the fight is to commence. I need to spin things out until Aiko gets back, and I don’t want to kill Daon (though the chain’s enchantment has removed any such scruples from his mind), so I must limit my attacks to throws. Based on the diagrams in the rules, the Whirlpool throw should leave me in a less vulnerable position than either of the others available, so I lead with that.

Regrettably, he is sufficiently familiar with that throw that he evades me with ease and delivers a kick that removes more than half of my remaining Endurance. That’s a bit harsh. Okay, the description of the end of his fight on the bridge did mention him using the Whirlpool throw on his opponent, but knowing how to carry out an attack does not automatically mean knowing the perfect defence against it. If that passage had had him dodging a similar technique before delivering the coup de grace, it would have been a reasonable hint for observant readers, but merely showing him performing it falls short.

Well, caution hasn’t helped, so let’s go for the ludicrously dangerous-looking end of the scale and try the Teeth of the Tiger throw. Daon isn’t as adept at countering that one, and I roll well enough for my attack to succeed, giving me time to prepare another throw before he can get close enough to retaliate. If I can survive one more round of this fight, something will change, so the only question is whether I repeat the Teeth of the Tiger or risk switching to the Dragon’s Tail on the off-chance that Daon’s Defence against that is weaker.

The likelihood of my succeeding with another Teeth of the Tiger throw is slightly above 50%, and the odds of my surviving Daon’s counterattack if it doesn’t work are a little lower. I’ll take a chance on trying the Dragon’s Tail in the hope of improving my chances. A smart decision, as his Defence is indeed lower, but the dice still let me down. Daon strikes back at me, and the roll for his attack is no better than my last one, so his elbow fails to make contact.

Incidentally, I can’t help but notice some sloppiness with the page layout in this part of the book, as the following section has its number right at the bottom of one page and the whole of its text on the next. And while I'm critiquing extra-narrative details, I will observe that every 'turn to' direction is underlined and has text in a slightly different colour to the rest, as if Ninja! started out as an online document with hyperlinks to facilitate navigation between sections, and the publishers couldn't be bothered to reformat the text for hard copy. It's not a fault, as such, but it does make the book look like an afterthought.

Seeing that Aiko has returned, I perform a flashy manoeuvre, removing my chain and transferring the bracelet to Daon’s wrist. Realising that he’s lost control of the situation, the Daimyo orders his guards to attack us. Alas, there are just too many samurai for the three of us to handle, and while the ensuing display of our fighting skills costs Daimyo Arai a good deal more than the one he had arranged, at the end of it he’s still alive and we get recycled as dogfood.

I never got as heavily into The Way of the Tiger as I did some other gamebook series, so I'm not sufficiently familiar with the 'house style' to be able to comment on how well Walters has emulated Smith and Thomson's authorial voice, but based on how I've fared at Avenger! so far, I'd say that Ninja! seems a decent fit as regards the difficulty and the nastiness of some of the endings. The spreadsheet I use to keep track of what gets played when for this blog indicates that it'll be a while before I return to The Way of the Tiger (possibly next year, if I can maintain a consistent pace of posting and don't wind up needing multiple entries to cover adventures), but when I do, I shan't be skipping this book in order to get back to the original series opener.