Some years back, at one of the now-defunct FF forums, several fans cooperated in the creation of a new adventure, which involved a search for villains and McGuffins in around half a dozen different locations in Allansia. I wound up writing the passages covering travel between those locations, and did my best to ensure that there was always at least potential for something interesting to happen on the way from one place to another. In view of how well I knew the books, I suspect that Night Dragon was less influential than Keith Martin's earlier gamebook Tower of Destruction in showing me the sort of thing I wanted to avoid, but both books feature lengthy journeys on which hardly anything of note happens. While the multi-authored adventure to which I contributed is not as good as those two books, I do find its travel sequences more enjoyable, and I'm pretty sure that that's not just because I wrote them.
Resuming Night Dragon (rather later than intended), I have a lot of travel ahead of me. The Green Dragon who took me to the Conclave offers to transport me part of the way, but remembering Nevill's advice (and the nasty fate which befell the Dragon on the one previous attempt at this book when I took him up on his offer), I decline, thereby gaining my first Honour point.
To start with I seek the magic sword. After a day's uneventful travel, I reach a fork in the path. The side route leads to Carnex, and presents me with a minor dilemma: there's useful stuff to be had in Carnex, but getting hold of it would require me to get into a fight that's currently out of my league. So do I go anyway and hope for some really lucky rolls, or continue on to the Mist Crypts and hope for another opportunity to visit Carnex once I've got my hands on a decent magical item or two?
Carnex can wait. I hope. So I go on my way for a couple more days, during which nothing of note happens. Maybe the assassins on my trail are hoping to bore me to death. Finally I reach the mountain that houses the Crypts, and find an obvious entrance. Too obvious? I try seeking another way in, and my low Nemesis score means that I miss out on some fun or trouble while doing so. My search is unsuccessful, but not entirely fruitless, and I add some edible flora to my belongings before heading down the tunnel leading into the mountain.
After a while, I reach some steps leading down into the darkness. They eventually lead to a landing with a door at the far end, and as I head for the door, two skeletons 'melt' out of the walls to menace me. There appears to be a mistake in the text here: apparently these 'Stonemelders' are no ordinary animated skeletons, but are composed of both bone and bone.
Though I have a higher Skill than either of these creatures, and manage to position myself so they can only attack one at a time, I get some appalling rolls, and the second Stonemelder manages to kill me. A rather more abrupt ending than I'd hoped for, but with those dice I'd have done even worse in Carnex.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Someone Always Gets to Them First
Of the original run of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Keith Martin's Night Dragon was the one I played last. It wasn't the last one I acquired - as previously explained, that was Siege of Sardath - but I'd already had a couple of goes at a library copy of Siege a while before I properly restarted my FF collection. As with most of the last additions to that collection, I got ND on eBay.
I had previously encountered a copy at Brown's bookshop, on the sale table (which was a little further south than it had been when I'd come across similarly reduced copies of Black Vein Prophecy or Moonrunner there), and had had a very brief look inside, coming across an Instant Death involving a drugged biscuit. I was not impressed, and left the book for someone else to buy.
ND also has the distinction of being the most recent FF gamebook I've definitely won. While my first attempt ended badly in a fight against assassins, and I've failed the book more than once since then, the time I played it at the unofficial FF forum, I succeeded. It's not as essential to visit locations in just the right order as in most of Mr. Martin's later books.
Another factor that makes this book less harsh than those that surround it is a small addition to the rules that makes character creation a little less hazardous. In recognition of the fact that my character is a seasoned adventurer, I get a couple of points to add to the stats of my choice (with certain restrictions), to at least slightly compensate for any poor rolls. For this reason, I'm going to take the dice as they come, getting:
Skill 9
Stamina 20
Luck 8
Mediocre, but it'd be even worse without that rule.
Hints of an epic quest have brought me to the Hemlock tavern in Port Blacksand to meet with a stranger. He turns out to be a Dark Elf, but this isn't a trap. Things are bad enough that he's prepared to put aside traditional enmities for his people's sake. As are the land's different Dragon communities: the Dark Elf attended a Conclave of Dragons, at which were representatives of every colour of Dragon, and some of the different types really do not get on with certain of the others.
It seems that the Night Dragon, an Ancient Dragon far more powerful than any of the contemporary breed, has been sleeping for centuries, but is starting to wake, and growing in strength as it does. There is little that the other Dragons can do about it, as they are bound by an oath that would inflict a lethal curse upon any of their number who dared oppose an Ancient. Already reptilian servitors of the Night Dragon, known as Stalkers, are guarding the Night Dragon's resting place and beginning to roam further afield. They defeated the Dark Elves who sought to eliminate the Night Dragon, and are responsible for the injuries that will probably soon kill the one telling me this.
There is one loophole to the Dragons' oath: they can talk. And they know the whereabouts of several powerful magical items that might give me a chance to defeat the Night Dragon in battle. The Conclave will see me and tell me what they can, and the Dark Elf gives me the key to a room where I can meet a messenger who will take me to them. He also gives me money for the voyage to the tavern where I'll meet the messenger, in a place called Rentarn, and then limps away, leaving me to dwell on the trials ahead.
In the morning I opt to do some shopping before leaving town. Unlike some gamebooks, this one specifies that I need to save a certain amount for anticipated expenses, so I limit my purchases to a rope, a mirror, an ice pick and a Luck potion. I almost went for the carved ivory polar bear, but despite looking like your classic 'seemingly non-essential, but actually invaluable in a certain situation' item, it's not something I've ever actually had any use for in previous attempts at the book, so I shan't bother with the expense for once.
Avoiding some kind of Unlucky incident (most likely having something stolen, given Blacksand's reputation), I proceed to the harbour. I have seen it argued that it's better to travel on foot than by boat at this stage of the adventure, but the misadventures of a fellow member of the 'played every FF book in order' club taught me of a potentially lethal Test your Luck early on the land route to Rentarn, and as I don't know how to avoid it (or if it's even possible) and my Luck isn't that impressive, I'd rather go by sea.
There's a ship heading my way. My spending in town has left me with too little money for the fare, but my Stamina is just high enough that I can get passage on the ship at an affordable price by agreeing to assist the crew with assorted tasks. Towards the end of the first day, the ship is attacked by a couple of Greels, aquatic monsters with which I'm not familiar.
One of the Greels targets me. Its Skill is equal to mine, but a string of lucky rolls enables me to kill it at very little Stamina cost. The other manages to kill a couple of the crew before succumbing to their shipmates' blows, and I soon have cause to be thankful that 'skinning and butchering furred sea serpents' was not one of the duties for which I signed up.
The following day is foggy, and ice floes drift past as we head up the coast. I catch sight of something that doesn't look like ice on one of them, and as the ship is having to go slowly because of the weather conditions, the captain has no objections to my borrowing a rowing boat in order to take a closer look. The mysterious object turns out to be a black-robed corpse, frozen onto the floe. Closer examination of the body turns up a tattoo, which could be taken as implying that the dead man came here from a completely different gamebook series. I use my ice-pick to chip away at the ice on the body, and find that the man was carrying a pouch. It contains some money, a bit of frozen food, and a scroll bearing a partially illegible message. What I can read includes a mention of my name and a reference to a town with a name ending in '-rnex'.
The ship has pulled away while I've been investigating, but I am able to attract the attention of someone on board, and they allow me to catch up with them and resume my northward voyage, so for the rest of my trip to Rentarn I experience nothing more horrific than a dish of boiled Greel.
Rentarn turns out to be a cold and not-very-hospitable trading outpost. Stopping off to do a little shopping on my way to the tavern where my contact waits for me (while this book does track the passage of time, the reception awaiting me in the tavern will be the same no matter how long I take getting there), I get an empty bottle (there's a lot of demand for them in FF books from around this time) and some extra Provisions. Thinking of the meeting that awaits me in the tavern, I eat one portion of those Provisions before setting off to it. As I draw near, I think I see a grey-robed figure duck into the shadows, but don't worry about that as I enter the tavern, ascend the stairs and unlock the door to which the Dark Elf directed me.
In a shocking twist, the person I'm here to see has been murdered, and three armed fanatics in grey robes are waiting for a chance to kill me, too. I manage to manoeuvre into a spot where they can only attack one at a time, and consequently only lose just over half my Stamina fighting them. Searching the body of my contact, another Dark Elf, I find some money and a silver plaque with the word 'Endimion' scratched onto it.
Someone hammers on the door, demanding to know what's going on in the room. I search the bodies of my attackers, and though I'm supposed to be a seasoned adventure, the book has me go for their money first, so the people outside the room are able to force the door open before I can turn my attention to the paper that one of the Assassins carries in an inside pocket. The landlord and a couple of the local militia burst in, and I decide not to make myself look even more suspicious than I already do by trying to escape through the window. Consequently I spend the next couple of days in the local jail on a charge of Resisting Being Assassinated or something.
Once I'm released, the only real lead I have to follow is the word from that plaque. It looks like it could be a name, so I start discreetly asking if anyone knows somebody called Endimion. After two days of nothing but, "Did you mean Endymion?" and fourth wall-breaking references to Keats and Dan Simmons, I catch sight of a man in grey robes entering a tanner's workshop, and decide to see if I can find out anything useful from my enemies. Listening at the door, I hear enough to deduce that my next contact is due to arrive on a ship today, and the men in grey intend to prevent him from talking to me.
Aware that I have as much chance of averting his death as I did that of the Dark Elf in the tavern, I keep listening. The robed killers want to stop the messenger from the ship from going east to investigate the activities of the Frost Giants, and 'to deal with that idiot they recruited in Blacksand'. There are Stalkers in the wasteland and, predictably, an assassin at the docks. That seems to be all I can find out here, so I enter the tannery. The grey-robed man holds a dagger in one hand and a pouch of money in the other, and turns to attack me with his sword (don't ask). He's my equal, Skill-wise, and to complicate matters, the tanner starts throwing pots of acid at me. Amusingly, while the dice favour my opponent in the actual combat, they also give the tanner abysmal aim, as a result of which the Assassin gets hit by three vessels of vitriol, so the one blow I manage to inflict upon him is enough to finish him off.
The tanner flees, and I take the money before proceeding to the docks, where I find a sailor who knows about the Endimion, which is due in later today. When it arrives, I catch sight of a figure in a black cloak lurking on board, and the book has me fail to remember that my enemies favour grey robes, so I assume he's a villain, yell at him, and thereby draw the dock-based assassin's attention to the Dark Elf I'm supposed to be meeting, so my final lead gets a poisoned dart in the neck before he can tell me anything.
I hurry over to the dying Dark Elf, who is competent enough to make his last words matter. He tells me where to go next, says to take firewater to the Frost Giants, and leaves me with a new unfamiliar word to puzzle over: Ismater. Before following his directions, I head to the shops again to stock up on Provisions.
After a day's uneventful travel along a little-used pass, I reach a junction. One turning leads the way the Dark Elf said to go, but there's a weathered sign indicating that the other one goes to a place with a name that starts with 'Is-' and ends in '-er', so I investigate that first. Not entirely surprisingly, it leads to a village named Ismater. I risk spending a day doing manual labour to earn a bit more money, and then visit a tavern, which appears not to charge for the food and drink I get there. A grey-robed individual with a scar and a tattoo is watching me, so I stroll across to make conversation.
Night Dragon actually has three non-standard characteristics to track. Time and Honour are nothing new, but there's also Nemesis, which reflects the extent to which I have made myself noticeable to the fanatics who serve the Night Dragon. So far I've only acquired one Nemesis point, following the fracas in the tanner's workshop. No doubt some of the late Assassin's associates caught up with the fleeing tanner, who may have told them a less than entirely accurate account of the fight, downplaying his own substantial contribution to the outcome. Regardless, I am not yet notorious enough for the scarred man to be certain that I'm the person he seems to think I might be, so when I approach him, he makes his excuses and leaves. I attempt to follow and see where he goes, but he eludes me.
As I'm wandering around the village anyway, I decide to see if it contains anything of note. There are two potentially significant shops: the Firewater Emporium and a place with a weathered sign that appears to read 'EVIL'. Remembering the most recent dying Dark Elf's words, I first pop into the former establishment to buy a bottle of intoxicating spirits. Then I try the other place on the off-chance that the grey-robed mob have situated their local headquarters in the most unsubtle venue imaginable and can be eavesdropped upon. In this regard I am disappointed, as it turns out to be a junk shop owned by a man named Nevill, who needs to repaint the sign. Amidst the useless clutter (which, judging by the illustration, includes a Facehugger in a jar!) I find a few items that could be worth having, and I buy another Luck potion and a dose of Poison Antidote.
Nevill looks like the sort of person who keeps his ear to the ground, so I casually ask if he knows anything about the Conclave of Dragons. Alarmed at the possibility of being overheard, he pushes me out of the shop, at the same time whispering a warning that if I accept an offer of help from a Dragon, that Dragon will die.
Before leaving Ismater, I spend my remaining gold on more Provisions. Now it's time I was heading to the Conclave, and the book provides nonsensical directions for doing so: at the last junction Ismater was to the north-east, and the conclave was north-north-west, yet the text advises me to head east-north-eastwards to get from Ismater to the conclave. What's the betting that the author or editor of this book has a few birds of prey in his toolbox?
The path is uneven, and I stumble, twisting my ankle. After a while, a Green Dragon flies towards me and carries me to the cave where the Conclave is being held. Somehow this doesn't qualify as the sort of assistance that would doom a Dragon, though I know from a past attempt at the book that accepting a ride after I've spoken with the Conclave will cause the Dragon to die. Nastily.
Anyway, the Dragons of the Conclave tell me (purely as a matter of academic interest, I'm sure) that the humans who defeated the Night Dragon before used three magic items: a sword which is now located in the Mist Crypts to the south-west, armour crafted by the dwarven artisans of Slate Peak, to the north-west, and a shield which is currently owned by the Frost Giants to the south-east. The Night Dragon itself is somewhere to the north: the Dragons here don't know exactly where, but the Loremaster does, and I'll meet him if I find the three magic items needed. He also has an unlikely-looking servant whom I might encounter if I get lucky. And now that we've had this nice chat, if I should happen to start looking for the items in the hope of using them to kill the Night Dragon, that's entirely my own business, and the Dragons of the Conclave cannot in any way be held responsible for the consequences, right?
Those who expressed an opinion following my previous post were in favour of my breaking playthroughs into smaller instalments if that helped me get back to posting less infrequently, and the revelation of the three sub-quests lying ahead seems like a good point to take a break and post the story so far. I'll try to get my next post up before the end of next month.
I had previously encountered a copy at Brown's bookshop, on the sale table (which was a little further south than it had been when I'd come across similarly reduced copies of Black Vein Prophecy or Moonrunner there), and had had a very brief look inside, coming across an Instant Death involving a drugged biscuit. I was not impressed, and left the book for someone else to buy.
ND also has the distinction of being the most recent FF gamebook I've definitely won. While my first attempt ended badly in a fight against assassins, and I've failed the book more than once since then, the time I played it at the unofficial FF forum, I succeeded. It's not as essential to visit locations in just the right order as in most of Mr. Martin's later books.
Another factor that makes this book less harsh than those that surround it is a small addition to the rules that makes character creation a little less hazardous. In recognition of the fact that my character is a seasoned adventurer, I get a couple of points to add to the stats of my choice (with certain restrictions), to at least slightly compensate for any poor rolls. For this reason, I'm going to take the dice as they come, getting:
Skill 9
Stamina 20
Luck 8
Mediocre, but it'd be even worse without that rule.
Hints of an epic quest have brought me to the Hemlock tavern in Port Blacksand to meet with a stranger. He turns out to be a Dark Elf, but this isn't a trap. Things are bad enough that he's prepared to put aside traditional enmities for his people's sake. As are the land's different Dragon communities: the Dark Elf attended a Conclave of Dragons, at which were representatives of every colour of Dragon, and some of the different types really do not get on with certain of the others.
It seems that the Night Dragon, an Ancient Dragon far more powerful than any of the contemporary breed, has been sleeping for centuries, but is starting to wake, and growing in strength as it does. There is little that the other Dragons can do about it, as they are bound by an oath that would inflict a lethal curse upon any of their number who dared oppose an Ancient. Already reptilian servitors of the Night Dragon, known as Stalkers, are guarding the Night Dragon's resting place and beginning to roam further afield. They defeated the Dark Elves who sought to eliminate the Night Dragon, and are responsible for the injuries that will probably soon kill the one telling me this.
There is one loophole to the Dragons' oath: they can talk. And they know the whereabouts of several powerful magical items that might give me a chance to defeat the Night Dragon in battle. The Conclave will see me and tell me what they can, and the Dark Elf gives me the key to a room where I can meet a messenger who will take me to them. He also gives me money for the voyage to the tavern where I'll meet the messenger, in a place called Rentarn, and then limps away, leaving me to dwell on the trials ahead.
In the morning I opt to do some shopping before leaving town. Unlike some gamebooks, this one specifies that I need to save a certain amount for anticipated expenses, so I limit my purchases to a rope, a mirror, an ice pick and a Luck potion. I almost went for the carved ivory polar bear, but despite looking like your classic 'seemingly non-essential, but actually invaluable in a certain situation' item, it's not something I've ever actually had any use for in previous attempts at the book, so I shan't bother with the expense for once.
Avoiding some kind of Unlucky incident (most likely having something stolen, given Blacksand's reputation), I proceed to the harbour. I have seen it argued that it's better to travel on foot than by boat at this stage of the adventure, but the misadventures of a fellow member of the 'played every FF book in order' club taught me of a potentially lethal Test your Luck early on the land route to Rentarn, and as I don't know how to avoid it (or if it's even possible) and my Luck isn't that impressive, I'd rather go by sea.
There's a ship heading my way. My spending in town has left me with too little money for the fare, but my Stamina is just high enough that I can get passage on the ship at an affordable price by agreeing to assist the crew with assorted tasks. Towards the end of the first day, the ship is attacked by a couple of Greels, aquatic monsters with which I'm not familiar.
Despite what some might think, they don't look like this.
One of the Greels targets me. Its Skill is equal to mine, but a string of lucky rolls enables me to kill it at very little Stamina cost. The other manages to kill a couple of the crew before succumbing to their shipmates' blows, and I soon have cause to be thankful that 'skinning and butchering furred sea serpents' was not one of the duties for which I signed up.
The following day is foggy, and ice floes drift past as we head up the coast. I catch sight of something that doesn't look like ice on one of them, and as the ship is having to go slowly because of the weather conditions, the captain has no objections to my borrowing a rowing boat in order to take a closer look. The mysterious object turns out to be a black-robed corpse, frozen onto the floe. Closer examination of the body turns up a tattoo, which could be taken as implying that the dead man came here from a completely different gamebook series. I use my ice-pick to chip away at the ice on the body, and find that the man was carrying a pouch. It contains some money, a bit of frozen food, and a scroll bearing a partially illegible message. What I can read includes a mention of my name and a reference to a town with a name ending in '-rnex'.
The ship has pulled away while I've been investigating, but I am able to attract the attention of someone on board, and they allow me to catch up with them and resume my northward voyage, so for the rest of my trip to Rentarn I experience nothing more horrific than a dish of boiled Greel.
Rentarn turns out to be a cold and not-very-hospitable trading outpost. Stopping off to do a little shopping on my way to the tavern where my contact waits for me (while this book does track the passage of time, the reception awaiting me in the tavern will be the same no matter how long I take getting there), I get an empty bottle (there's a lot of demand for them in FF books from around this time) and some extra Provisions. Thinking of the meeting that awaits me in the tavern, I eat one portion of those Provisions before setting off to it. As I draw near, I think I see a grey-robed figure duck into the shadows, but don't worry about that as I enter the tavern, ascend the stairs and unlock the door to which the Dark Elf directed me.
In a shocking twist, the person I'm here to see has been murdered, and three armed fanatics in grey robes are waiting for a chance to kill me, too. I manage to manoeuvre into a spot where they can only attack one at a time, and consequently only lose just over half my Stamina fighting them. Searching the body of my contact, another Dark Elf, I find some money and a silver plaque with the word 'Endimion' scratched onto it.
Someone hammers on the door, demanding to know what's going on in the room. I search the bodies of my attackers, and though I'm supposed to be a seasoned adventure, the book has me go for their money first, so the people outside the room are able to force the door open before I can turn my attention to the paper that one of the Assassins carries in an inside pocket. The landlord and a couple of the local militia burst in, and I decide not to make myself look even more suspicious than I already do by trying to escape through the window. Consequently I spend the next couple of days in the local jail on a charge of Resisting Being Assassinated or something.
Once I'm released, the only real lead I have to follow is the word from that plaque. It looks like it could be a name, so I start discreetly asking if anyone knows somebody called Endimion. After two days of nothing but, "Did you mean Endymion?" and fourth wall-breaking references to Keats and Dan Simmons, I catch sight of a man in grey robes entering a tanner's workshop, and decide to see if I can find out anything useful from my enemies. Listening at the door, I hear enough to deduce that my next contact is due to arrive on a ship today, and the men in grey intend to prevent him from talking to me.
Aware that I have as much chance of averting his death as I did that of the Dark Elf in the tavern, I keep listening. The robed killers want to stop the messenger from the ship from going east to investigate the activities of the Frost Giants, and 'to deal with that idiot they recruited in Blacksand'. There are Stalkers in the wasteland and, predictably, an assassin at the docks. That seems to be all I can find out here, so I enter the tannery. The grey-robed man holds a dagger in one hand and a pouch of money in the other, and turns to attack me with his sword (don't ask). He's my equal, Skill-wise, and to complicate matters, the tanner starts throwing pots of acid at me. Amusingly, while the dice favour my opponent in the actual combat, they also give the tanner abysmal aim, as a result of which the Assassin gets hit by three vessels of vitriol, so the one blow I manage to inflict upon him is enough to finish him off.
The tanner flees, and I take the money before proceeding to the docks, where I find a sailor who knows about the Endimion, which is due in later today. When it arrives, I catch sight of a figure in a black cloak lurking on board, and the book has me fail to remember that my enemies favour grey robes, so I assume he's a villain, yell at him, and thereby draw the dock-based assassin's attention to the Dark Elf I'm supposed to be meeting, so my final lead gets a poisoned dart in the neck before he can tell me anything.
I hurry over to the dying Dark Elf, who is competent enough to make his last words matter. He tells me where to go next, says to take firewater to the Frost Giants, and leaves me with a new unfamiliar word to puzzle over: Ismater. Before following his directions, I head to the shops again to stock up on Provisions.
After a day's uneventful travel along a little-used pass, I reach a junction. One turning leads the way the Dark Elf said to go, but there's a weathered sign indicating that the other one goes to a place with a name that starts with 'Is-' and ends in '-er', so I investigate that first. Not entirely surprisingly, it leads to a village named Ismater. I risk spending a day doing manual labour to earn a bit more money, and then visit a tavern, which appears not to charge for the food and drink I get there. A grey-robed individual with a scar and a tattoo is watching me, so I stroll across to make conversation.
Night Dragon actually has three non-standard characteristics to track. Time and Honour are nothing new, but there's also Nemesis, which reflects the extent to which I have made myself noticeable to the fanatics who serve the Night Dragon. So far I've only acquired one Nemesis point, following the fracas in the tanner's workshop. No doubt some of the late Assassin's associates caught up with the fleeing tanner, who may have told them a less than entirely accurate account of the fight, downplaying his own substantial contribution to the outcome. Regardless, I am not yet notorious enough for the scarred man to be certain that I'm the person he seems to think I might be, so when I approach him, he makes his excuses and leaves. I attempt to follow and see where he goes, but he eludes me.
As I'm wandering around the village anyway, I decide to see if it contains anything of note. There are two potentially significant shops: the Firewater Emporium and a place with a weathered sign that appears to read 'EVIL'. Remembering the most recent dying Dark Elf's words, I first pop into the former establishment to buy a bottle of intoxicating spirits. Then I try the other place on the off-chance that the grey-robed mob have situated their local headquarters in the most unsubtle venue imaginable and can be eavesdropped upon. In this regard I am disappointed, as it turns out to be a junk shop owned by a man named Nevill, who needs to repaint the sign. Amidst the useless clutter (which, judging by the illustration, includes a Facehugger in a jar!) I find a few items that could be worth having, and I buy another Luck potion and a dose of Poison Antidote.
Nevill looks like the sort of person who keeps his ear to the ground, so I casually ask if he knows anything about the Conclave of Dragons. Alarmed at the possibility of being overheard, he pushes me out of the shop, at the same time whispering a warning that if I accept an offer of help from a Dragon, that Dragon will die.
Before leaving Ismater, I spend my remaining gold on more Provisions. Now it's time I was heading to the Conclave, and the book provides nonsensical directions for doing so: at the last junction Ismater was to the north-east, and the conclave was north-north-west, yet the text advises me to head east-north-eastwards to get from Ismater to the conclave. What's the betting that the author or editor of this book has a few birds of prey in his toolbox?
The path is uneven, and I stumble, twisting my ankle. After a while, a Green Dragon flies towards me and carries me to the cave where the Conclave is being held. Somehow this doesn't qualify as the sort of assistance that would doom a Dragon, though I know from a past attempt at the book that accepting a ride after I've spoken with the Conclave will cause the Dragon to die. Nastily.
Anyway, the Dragons of the Conclave tell me (purely as a matter of academic interest, I'm sure) that the humans who defeated the Night Dragon before used three magic items: a sword which is now located in the Mist Crypts to the south-west, armour crafted by the dwarven artisans of Slate Peak, to the north-west, and a shield which is currently owned by the Frost Giants to the south-east. The Night Dragon itself is somewhere to the north: the Dragons here don't know exactly where, but the Loremaster does, and I'll meet him if I find the three magic items needed. He also has an unlikely-looking servant whom I might encounter if I get lucky. And now that we've had this nice chat, if I should happen to start looking for the items in the hope of using them to kill the Night Dragon, that's entirely my own business, and the Dragons of the Conclave cannot in any way be held responsible for the consequences, right?
Those who expressed an opinion following my previous post were in favour of my breaking playthroughs into smaller instalments if that helped me get back to posting less infrequently, and the revelation of the three sub-quests lying ahead seems like a good point to take a break and post the story so far. I'll try to get my next post up before the end of next month.
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
That Don't Leave No Time Left to Play
Apologies for the lack of updates here of late. I haven't given up on this blog, but there's currently a lot going on in other areas of my life, keeping me from giving it much attention.
Much of this is good stuff. I have an actual job again - only part-time, but that's still much better than being unemployed. Thanks to this blog, I've also become a playtester for some new mini-gamebooks (unpaid, but worthwhile). That does, of course, take up a lot of what time I do have for playing gamebooks, as it takes multiple attempts at an adventure to make sure it all hangs together (or identify the places where it doesn't and help fix them). Then there are other interests and responsibilities, friends and family...
It doesn't help that the next playthrough for here is for another gamebook that takes a long while to complete successfully (and, thus, could also take a significant time to fail, depending on how close to the end I get before reaching a bad ending). I've made some progress in it, but I doubt that I'm even half way yet. Would readers be interested in split playthroughs (as I did for Slaves of the Abyss) if taking 2+ posts to get through an adventure meant that updates here would become less infrequent?
Anyway, I hope this reassures anyone who's still keeping an eye on this blog that I shall be continuing with it. I promise not to leave it so long before the next update.
Much of this is good stuff. I have an actual job again - only part-time, but that's still much better than being unemployed. Thanks to this blog, I've also become a playtester for some new mini-gamebooks (unpaid, but worthwhile). That does, of course, take up a lot of what time I do have for playing gamebooks, as it takes multiple attempts at an adventure to make sure it all hangs together (or identify the places where it doesn't and help fix them). Then there are other interests and responsibilities, friends and family...
It doesn't help that the next playthrough for here is for another gamebook that takes a long while to complete successfully (and, thus, could also take a significant time to fail, depending on how close to the end I get before reaching a bad ending). I've made some progress in it, but I doubt that I'm even half way yet. Would readers be interested in split playthroughs (as I did for Slaves of the Abyss) if taking 2+ posts to get through an adventure meant that updates here would become less infrequent?
Anyway, I hope this reassures anyone who's still keeping an eye on this blog that I shall be continuing with it. I promise not to leave it so long before the next update.
Monday, 1 December 2014
I Don't Think Much of Your Hospitality
I have memories of reading some of The Jungle of Horrors, the eighth of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf books, at my grandparents'
home, and vague impressions suggesting that that was during a school holiday
rather than on a normal Friday. These recollections mainly focus on the voyage
by river that can be taken during the book, and as I'm planning on taking that
route again for this playthrough, I shan't say any more about those sequences until I reach them in this attempt at the book.
I also remember reading the final section, which enabled me to
finally get the point of something I'd read in an unrelated gamebook some time
before. That one was the first of the Zork
gamebooks, a series which made so little an impact on me that I've never
bothered trying to get my own copies. The one detail that did grab my attention
was the anti-cheater ending: a check for an item not available in the book,
which sent readers claiming to have the object in question to a fail ending
where they were reprimanded for their misbehaviour. This reprimand included a
comment along the lines of, 'You're probably the type of person that reads the
last section first, too.' When I came across that section while flicking
through the book (in a branch of WHSmith, as I recall), I couldn't see what was
so bad about reading the ending ahead of time. But in Jungle, the final section makes the correct decision in the book's
last choice obvious. Not that it would have been that tricky to work out even without advance knowledge of the ending,
but the experience made me more wary of such looking ahead from then on.
Jungle was also the book in which I experienced
one of the most frustrating failures of my early nineties 'play through the
whole series in order, and go back to the start of book 1 after every defeat'
folly. Partly because it was a rubbish ending – an optional detour serving no
purpose but to provide the opportunity to get knocked into a ravine and die –
but also because it happened so close to the start of the next term that I
wasn't going to have time to get through the series before I had to travel back
to Swansea. And as I was using public transport for the journey, and would be
carrying all my luggage on my own, adding a dozen books (or even just eleven
books and my rapid guide to the first one) to my case or
rucksack did not appeal. So a whole term had to go by before I could get back
to my attempt at the whole saga.
That's enough reminiscing for now. Time to get on with the adventure, which means deciding which new Discipline to add to the line-up, and picking extra equipment from whatever is offered. As I indicated the last time I was making such a decision, I'm picking my Disciplines with Lore-Circles in mind, and if I want to complete the Lore-Circle that provides the highest Combat Skill bonus before I reach the first 'Die, long-standing reader, die!' fight, I need to get either Psi-Surge or Nexus now, and the other of those two next. I remember some circumstances in which Nexus is important, but they're in the next book in the series, so this time I'll go for Psi-Surge.
I also get to select a new weapon proficiency. As I'm unlikely to wind up in a situation where I can use neither my bow nor the Sommerswerd (that was last book), it probably doesn't matter, so I'll choose Axe, in memory of Lone Wolf's first weapon. As for equipment selection, I'll get a new rope, a healing potion, a couple of extra Fireseeds, and a replacement quiver of arrows. I'll also retrieve a helping of the Combat Skill-enhancing Alether berries I put into storage at the Kai monastery. Not entirely sure how I manage to nip there and back when it's hundreds of miles away, but the rules say I can store excess gold there, and thanks to the money pouch provided at the equipment selection stage, I'm 16 coins above my limit. Besides, this book also introduces restrictions on the number of Special Items I can carry, and says anything above the limit must be stashed at the monastery. If I'm going all that way just to drop off some spare cash and assorted clutter, I can retrieve a bit of Alether, too, right?
Some significant things have happened between books. The Elder Magi taught me about a prophecy concerning the 'sons of the sun', two men born centuries apart, but both destined to seek the help of the Elder Magi in the course of a quest, and to oppose the forces of darkness at a time of great peril. The first, identified in the prophecy with a name meaning 'eagle', was Sun Eagle, the first Kai Grand Master. The name given to the second in the prophecy translates as 'wolf'. Wonder who that could be...
The location of the third Lorestone I seek has been discovered: the Temple of Ohrido, the Elder Magi's most sacred place of worship. Which is rather less accessible than the description might suggest: after a plague wiped out a load of the Elder Magi, they abandoned the Danarg, the region in which the temple was situated, and since then it's become a swamp-jungle inhabited by a variety of unpleasant creatures.
Oh, and the Darklord civil war that started after I killed their ruler back in book 5 has finally ended. Their new ruler, Gnaag, has united the other survivors of the conflict under his banner, and they are likely to start causing bother for the civilised world quite soon, so the sooner I complete my quest, the better.
On my journey to the Danarg, I am to be accompanied by Paido, the hero of the mini-adventure in the Mongoose edition of Jungle. He's the Vakeros (warrior-mage) who travelled with me in section 1 of the previous book. For a brief time we also have an even more illustrious escort, but news of an invasion by Zegron, Warlord of Xanar, forces him to return to his cousin, the Queen of this region, to help prepare for war. He provides us with a Pass that will guarantee the cooperation of any loyal subject of the realm, and 21st-century Joe Dever gives a vote of no confidence in his readers by adding a warning against throwing away the Pass. Okay, it's a Special Item, so I need to ditch something to make room for it, but is there really much risk of a player going, 'Well, the Pass would help keep me out of needless fights with soldiers, but then there's this key that I picked up several books ago that might somehow come in handy in the middle of the jungle, so I think I'd better just go with the collateral damage,'?
Paido and I must now decide whether to complete the next stage of our journey, oddly referred to in the book as 'the first leg', as if the days of travel that help pad section 1 out to 4-odd pages in length don't count. We can go by road or by barge, and I've generally picked the barge when playing this before, so I'll stick with what I know well. Our departing escort has paid our fares for us and arranged to have a private cabin made available. A pretty poor-quality cabin, as it turns out (and the revised text takes care to point out that the patches of mould on the walls are 'unsightly', lest any reader think them picturesque), but mixed in with the junk stored in it is a nutritious liqueur, which I add to my pack.
Paido and I go up on deck to get away from the unpleasant smell of the cabin. After a while, a storm threatens, and the Captain urges us to go back below. Reluctant to return to the cabin, Paido suggests we check out the barge's tap-room, and offers to buy me a pint, and I am directed to the same section to which I'd have turned if I'd chosen to head straight for the tap-room rather than checking out the cabin. I wonder if any reader who headed straight for the bar gets to find out what a dump the cabin is.
The tap-room is busy, and offers a choice of three ales. Paido chooses Ferina Nog, which I remember from my first attempt at the book as ranking slightly below the cheaper export lagers in terms of drinkability. I could go for Chai-cheer, which is more palatable, but my character developed a taste for Bor Brew a few books ago, so that's my choice. Upon hearing me place my order, many of the patrons express doubts about my sanity, and even the barman backs off quickly after setting the tankard in front of me. The Mongoose edit here is one of the better ones, doing away with the implication that I down the drink in one. Sensible, though that will make it that bit more embarrassing if I fail the sobriety roll.
I don't fail, and the others in the bar are impressed when I demonstrate the ability to hold my drink. There's a particularly clunky Mongoose edit here, spelling out the nature of my achievement in needless detail. Now that I've drunk without passing out, Paido tries his beer - and promptly spits it out as he finds out how bad it tastes. The man into whose helmet he spat it is unimpressed, and tips the spat-out Ferina Nog onto Paido's shoes. Paido goes for his sword. I'm tempted to sit back and see how Mr. Dever contrives a way to defuse the situation if I don't intervene to calm things down, but I step in anyway, just in case inaction leads to one of the series' more ridiculous Instant Deaths (though even getting randomly killed in a bar fight wouldn't be anywhere near the worst ending that the Lone Wolf books have to offer).
I point out to Paido that the man whose helmet he defiled wears the uniform of the troops garrisoned at our next port of call and, Pass or no Pass, starting a fight with one of their number is not going to do us any favours. He sees reason, apologises, and offers to buy the soldier a drink. This offer is accepted - provided the drink in question isn't Ferina Nog.
Over a round of Chai-cheer (oddly renamed Chai-caveat in the first edition) we become friends. The soldier, named Trost, is returning to the garrison after visiting his family. Silence falls as a fancily-dressed man steps into the centre of the tap-room, introducing himself as Count Conundrum. He intends to baffle everyone with puzzles, and is offering money to anyone who can solve the first one. 27 years ago this was the only one of his puzzles that I wasn't able to figure out. By now, I've worked out how to solve that one as well. Should have put more coins into storage at the monastery, as I have to take 15 Gold Crowns out of my pouch to make room for the 60 Lune (local currency, equivalent in value and size to 15 Crowns) I win from the increasingly disgruntled Count.
As has happened before, modern-day Joe Dever has unnecessarily edited each 'right answer' section to specify that it is the correct answer to the puzzle from section such-and-such. Each such section has my character showing off the reasoning that produced the correct answer anyway, so even in the unlikely event of a reader getting a wrong answer that happens to be the right answer to a different puzzle, the error would soon become apparent.
The barge makes a stop, and I go up on deck to watch the departing passengers. A man with a hat, dark clothes, a sword and a leather-bound book comes aboard. He attempts to probe my mind, but I'm experienced enough that my Psi-screen protects me. Going back below, I spot the sinister stranger in the tap-room. Trost recognises him as a wanted man, Kezoor the Necromancer, and offers a share of the reward money if I'll help capture him. Even with a three-way split, drastically rounding my share down, I'd still need over a dozen extra money pouches to carry the loot, but I'll help anyway because I don't like it when people try to snoop on my thoughts. Besides, I don't think there's any way of evading this fight.
I'm chosen to guard the way out while Paido and Trost apprehend the Necromancer. Guess how well this plan works. Hint: within seconds, Trost is covered in boils and writhing on the floor. Onlookers cheer as a sword fight breaks out between Paido and Kezoor, but they're less keen to be watching when the Necromancer summons a horde of big spiders. They converge on Paido, and if I were unwilling to fire my bow at this juncture, I'd now be turning to 291. I do fire, though, and despite having to wait for screaming passengers to stop interfering with my line of sight, my shot is on target. Not lethal, but Kezoor's not going to get much use out of that arm for a while.
The Necromancer summons more of those spiders, but Paido uses his battle magic to incinerate them, and the two of us converge on Kezoor. He's a competent swordsman, but no match for the two of us, and we barely take any damage in the fight. Paido decapitates the corpse to ensure that it won't rise up to avenge Kezoor's slaying, and we then turn our attention to Trost. Who is by now a charred corpse, covered in burned spiders. By this stage any Magnakai-era veterans of the rpg.net Lone Wolf playthrough must be kicking themselves - that's up to three new alcoholic beverages, three puzzles and one doomed companion that they missed by opting to walk rather than take the barge.
The barge Captain demands compensation for the damage done during the fight, so Paido tells him to take the cost of the repairs out of the reward money and give the rest to Trost's family. Once he knows who we were fighting, the Captain is less concerned about fixing the place up anyway, reasoning that charging people to see where the infamous Necromancer met his end is likely to be more profitable.
I turn my attention to the book Kezoor was reading. Divination tells me that it's not magically protected, but also warns that it contains details of vile acts and rituals. I don't think reading about such things will provide any assistance as regards preventing them, so I don't look inside.
The bodies are disposed of - Trosts's with honours, Kezoor's just weighted with bricks and dumped overboard - and the barge continues to its next stop, where a couple of farmers disembark, doubtless eager to gossip about the events that occurred on the journey. Nothing significant occurs on the last leg of the barge trip, and that Pass ensures our entry to the town of Tharro. There's no 'If you do not have the Pass' option in either version of the book, eighties Joe Dever having relied on his readers' common sense, while his older self has evidently assumed that nobody would disregard his warning (or deliberately defy him in protest at being treated like an idiot).
Three streets lead from the square beyond the town gate. I pick Globe Walk, which leads to a square in which a sign points down an alley. There's no mention of anything written on the sign, which makes me that bit more curious, so I head down the alley. It's lined with shops, most of them closed, but a mapmaker's is still open, so I go in. The proprietress greets me and shows off some of her handiwork. I ask about maps of the Danarg, and she starts to cry. She and her father were on an expedition into that very jungle when he was killed by a creature that lived there, and one of her hands was scarred in the fight. Her notes and equipment were lost, but she does recall seeing the Temple I seek from the top of a 'Scarlet Tor' situated on firm ground around thirty miles from the end of the track leading to the jungle.
Returning to Globe Walk, I continue north, presumably still accompanied by Paido, though he hasn't been mentioned for a while, and reach a quadrangle. An imposing building bears a flaming sword-shaped sign that reads 'Temple of the Sword', and beyond it a track leads to a watchtower. The Mongoose edit has fixed some bad grammar here, and also sorted the different options into a more sensible order. I don't have a map of Tharro (wherever you have to go to get one, it's obviously not the local mapmaker's) or Pathsmanship, so I miss out on some hints about the region, but that flaming sword reminds me of my own magical weapon, so I decide to check out the Temple.
An old man greets us and leads us to a refectory. A monk brings us bowls of stew, and at this point I must act on metaknowledge because Divination is slacking again. Between my memories of past attempts at the book and the fact that referring to The Magnamund Companion reveals the 'blessing' the monk said over the stew to be Giak for, 'Die in pain,' I think I'll abstain from eating.
The books are inconsistent regarding Lone Wolf's knowledge of the Giak tongue: I couldn't understand what was yelled by one of the Giaks attacking Banedon back in the first book, and obviously I'm not expected to have understood the 'blessing', or the text would have said something, but in book 2 I was able to understand the scroll carried by my would-be assassin, which was written in Giak. Obviously it's possible to know a written language without being able to understand the spoken version - otherwise deaf people couldn't learn to read - but given the potential advantages of being able to make sense of what enemy troops are saying, it's odd that I've apparently not bothered trying to learn spoken Giak.
While I've been waffling on about this minor annoyance, Paido has eaten his stew. There's no way of preventing him from doing so, as far as I can tell. The monks are perturbed at my refusal to eat, and fetch a black-robed monk who carries a black iron staff. He asks if Paido has eaten, and the monks state that he did and I didn't. A little belatedly, Divination kicks in and lets me know that I'm in the presence of great evil. I draw my bow, not because I'm expecting to achieve much with an arrow, but because doing so may allow me to finish healing the 'didn't eat' damage before the inevitable fight breaks out.
The black-robed monk orders the two others present to 'summon the brothers'. I manage to shoot one of them, but the other gets out of the refectory and slams the door behind him. I've finished healing by now, so I draw the Sommerswerd and attack. The monk parries my blow with his staff, and Paido cries out and collapses. While I'm distracted, the monk launches a psychic attack, but Psi-screen blocks it. He then drops his disguise, transforming into the hideous shape of a Helghast. And a remarkably powerful one, too: its Combat Skill is significantly higher than that of the Darklord I had to fight at the end of book 5. At least it's vulnerable to Psi-surge, and while using that Discipline costs me Endurance, the expense is justified by the extra damage I'll inflict (and the slightly reduced damage I'll take) as a result of using it. I'll further improve my odds by taking that Alether, as I'm pretty sure this is the toughest fight in the book.
Too tough for me on this occasion: a series of poor rolls meant that I wound up dying, and the Helghast narrowly survived. Still, it was just a string of low numbers that doomed me there, so I shouldn't have to redesign my character to have a chance of winning on a subsequent attempt (good thing too, as I'd have to replay at least the preceding book as well for any changes in Discipline selection to make enough of a difference).
Incidentally, as I've so often been critical of edits made for the Mongoose Books reissues, I think it only fair to point out that the section covering this fight contained a serious error in the first edition (referring to Combat Skill rather than Endurance when describing the effect of the Helghast's psychic attack if Lone Wolf lacks Psi-screen), which has been put right in the newer version.
Out of curiosity, I worked out what the outcome of the fatal fight would have been if I hadn't bothered with Psi-surge. I wouldn't have died so quickly, and based on what I rolled for the additional rounds, the Helghast would have died at the same time I did, but I still wouldn't have survived. Still, that does make me wonder if it really is worth using Psi-surge after all in this instance. Food for thought when I replay the book.
I also get to select a new weapon proficiency. As I'm unlikely to wind up in a situation where I can use neither my bow nor the Sommerswerd (that was last book), it probably doesn't matter, so I'll choose Axe, in memory of Lone Wolf's first weapon. As for equipment selection, I'll get a new rope, a healing potion, a couple of extra Fireseeds, and a replacement quiver of arrows. I'll also retrieve a helping of the Combat Skill-enhancing Alether berries I put into storage at the Kai monastery. Not entirely sure how I manage to nip there and back when it's hundreds of miles away, but the rules say I can store excess gold there, and thanks to the money pouch provided at the equipment selection stage, I'm 16 coins above my limit. Besides, this book also introduces restrictions on the number of Special Items I can carry, and says anything above the limit must be stashed at the monastery. If I'm going all that way just to drop off some spare cash and assorted clutter, I can retrieve a bit of Alether, too, right?
Some significant things have happened between books. The Elder Magi taught me about a prophecy concerning the 'sons of the sun', two men born centuries apart, but both destined to seek the help of the Elder Magi in the course of a quest, and to oppose the forces of darkness at a time of great peril. The first, identified in the prophecy with a name meaning 'eagle', was Sun Eagle, the first Kai Grand Master. The name given to the second in the prophecy translates as 'wolf'. Wonder who that could be...
The location of the third Lorestone I seek has been discovered: the Temple of Ohrido, the Elder Magi's most sacred place of worship. Which is rather less accessible than the description might suggest: after a plague wiped out a load of the Elder Magi, they abandoned the Danarg, the region in which the temple was situated, and since then it's become a swamp-jungle inhabited by a variety of unpleasant creatures.
Oh, and the Darklord civil war that started after I killed their ruler back in book 5 has finally ended. Their new ruler, Gnaag, has united the other survivors of the conflict under his banner, and they are likely to start causing bother for the civilised world quite soon, so the sooner I complete my quest, the better.
On my journey to the Danarg, I am to be accompanied by Paido, the hero of the mini-adventure in the Mongoose edition of Jungle. He's the Vakeros (warrior-mage) who travelled with me in section 1 of the previous book. For a brief time we also have an even more illustrious escort, but news of an invasion by Zegron, Warlord of Xanar, forces him to return to his cousin, the Queen of this region, to help prepare for war. He provides us with a Pass that will guarantee the cooperation of any loyal subject of the realm, and 21st-century Joe Dever gives a vote of no confidence in his readers by adding a warning against throwing away the Pass. Okay, it's a Special Item, so I need to ditch something to make room for it, but is there really much risk of a player going, 'Well, the Pass would help keep me out of needless fights with soldiers, but then there's this key that I picked up several books ago that might somehow come in handy in the middle of the jungle, so I think I'd better just go with the collateral damage,'?
Paido and I must now decide whether to complete the next stage of our journey, oddly referred to in the book as 'the first leg', as if the days of travel that help pad section 1 out to 4-odd pages in length don't count. We can go by road or by barge, and I've generally picked the barge when playing this before, so I'll stick with what I know well. Our departing escort has paid our fares for us and arranged to have a private cabin made available. A pretty poor-quality cabin, as it turns out (and the revised text takes care to point out that the patches of mould on the walls are 'unsightly', lest any reader think them picturesque), but mixed in with the junk stored in it is a nutritious liqueur, which I add to my pack.
Paido and I go up on deck to get away from the unpleasant smell of the cabin. After a while, a storm threatens, and the Captain urges us to go back below. Reluctant to return to the cabin, Paido suggests we check out the barge's tap-room, and offers to buy me a pint, and I am directed to the same section to which I'd have turned if I'd chosen to head straight for the tap-room rather than checking out the cabin. I wonder if any reader who headed straight for the bar gets to find out what a dump the cabin is.
The tap-room is busy, and offers a choice of three ales. Paido chooses Ferina Nog, which I remember from my first attempt at the book as ranking slightly below the cheaper export lagers in terms of drinkability. I could go for Chai-cheer, which is more palatable, but my character developed a taste for Bor Brew a few books ago, so that's my choice. Upon hearing me place my order, many of the patrons express doubts about my sanity, and even the barman backs off quickly after setting the tankard in front of me. The Mongoose edit here is one of the better ones, doing away with the implication that I down the drink in one. Sensible, though that will make it that bit more embarrassing if I fail the sobriety roll.
I don't fail, and the others in the bar are impressed when I demonstrate the ability to hold my drink. There's a particularly clunky Mongoose edit here, spelling out the nature of my achievement in needless detail. Now that I've drunk without passing out, Paido tries his beer - and promptly spits it out as he finds out how bad it tastes. The man into whose helmet he spat it is unimpressed, and tips the spat-out Ferina Nog onto Paido's shoes. Paido goes for his sword. I'm tempted to sit back and see how Mr. Dever contrives a way to defuse the situation if I don't intervene to calm things down, but I step in anyway, just in case inaction leads to one of the series' more ridiculous Instant Deaths (though even getting randomly killed in a bar fight wouldn't be anywhere near the worst ending that the Lone Wolf books have to offer).
I point out to Paido that the man whose helmet he defiled wears the uniform of the troops garrisoned at our next port of call and, Pass or no Pass, starting a fight with one of their number is not going to do us any favours. He sees reason, apologises, and offers to buy the soldier a drink. This offer is accepted - provided the drink in question isn't Ferina Nog.
Over a round of Chai-cheer (oddly renamed Chai-caveat in the first edition) we become friends. The soldier, named Trost, is returning to the garrison after visiting his family. Silence falls as a fancily-dressed man steps into the centre of the tap-room, introducing himself as Count Conundrum. He intends to baffle everyone with puzzles, and is offering money to anyone who can solve the first one. 27 years ago this was the only one of his puzzles that I wasn't able to figure out. By now, I've worked out how to solve that one as well. Should have put more coins into storage at the monastery, as I have to take 15 Gold Crowns out of my pouch to make room for the 60 Lune (local currency, equivalent in value and size to 15 Crowns) I win from the increasingly disgruntled Count.
As has happened before, modern-day Joe Dever has unnecessarily edited each 'right answer' section to specify that it is the correct answer to the puzzle from section such-and-such. Each such section has my character showing off the reasoning that produced the correct answer anyway, so even in the unlikely event of a reader getting a wrong answer that happens to be the right answer to a different puzzle, the error would soon become apparent.
The barge makes a stop, and I go up on deck to watch the departing passengers. A man with a hat, dark clothes, a sword and a leather-bound book comes aboard. He attempts to probe my mind, but I'm experienced enough that my Psi-screen protects me. Going back below, I spot the sinister stranger in the tap-room. Trost recognises him as a wanted man, Kezoor the Necromancer, and offers a share of the reward money if I'll help capture him. Even with a three-way split, drastically rounding my share down, I'd still need over a dozen extra money pouches to carry the loot, but I'll help anyway because I don't like it when people try to snoop on my thoughts. Besides, I don't think there's any way of evading this fight.
I'm chosen to guard the way out while Paido and Trost apprehend the Necromancer. Guess how well this plan works. Hint: within seconds, Trost is covered in boils and writhing on the floor. Onlookers cheer as a sword fight breaks out between Paido and Kezoor, but they're less keen to be watching when the Necromancer summons a horde of big spiders. They converge on Paido, and if I were unwilling to fire my bow at this juncture, I'd now be turning to 291. I do fire, though, and despite having to wait for screaming passengers to stop interfering with my line of sight, my shot is on target. Not lethal, but Kezoor's not going to get much use out of that arm for a while.
The Necromancer summons more of those spiders, but Paido uses his battle magic to incinerate them, and the two of us converge on Kezoor. He's a competent swordsman, but no match for the two of us, and we barely take any damage in the fight. Paido decapitates the corpse to ensure that it won't rise up to avenge Kezoor's slaying, and we then turn our attention to Trost. Who is by now a charred corpse, covered in burned spiders. By this stage any Magnakai-era veterans of the rpg.net Lone Wolf playthrough must be kicking themselves - that's up to three new alcoholic beverages, three puzzles and one doomed companion that they missed by opting to walk rather than take the barge.
The barge Captain demands compensation for the damage done during the fight, so Paido tells him to take the cost of the repairs out of the reward money and give the rest to Trost's family. Once he knows who we were fighting, the Captain is less concerned about fixing the place up anyway, reasoning that charging people to see where the infamous Necromancer met his end is likely to be more profitable.
I turn my attention to the book Kezoor was reading. Divination tells me that it's not magically protected, but also warns that it contains details of vile acts and rituals. I don't think reading about such things will provide any assistance as regards preventing them, so I don't look inside.
The bodies are disposed of - Trosts's with honours, Kezoor's just weighted with bricks and dumped overboard - and the barge continues to its next stop, where a couple of farmers disembark, doubtless eager to gossip about the events that occurred on the journey. Nothing significant occurs on the last leg of the barge trip, and that Pass ensures our entry to the town of Tharro. There's no 'If you do not have the Pass' option in either version of the book, eighties Joe Dever having relied on his readers' common sense, while his older self has evidently assumed that nobody would disregard his warning (or deliberately defy him in protest at being treated like an idiot).
Three streets lead from the square beyond the town gate. I pick Globe Walk, which leads to a square in which a sign points down an alley. There's no mention of anything written on the sign, which makes me that bit more curious, so I head down the alley. It's lined with shops, most of them closed, but a mapmaker's is still open, so I go in. The proprietress greets me and shows off some of her handiwork. I ask about maps of the Danarg, and she starts to cry. She and her father were on an expedition into that very jungle when he was killed by a creature that lived there, and one of her hands was scarred in the fight. Her notes and equipment were lost, but she does recall seeing the Temple I seek from the top of a 'Scarlet Tor' situated on firm ground around thirty miles from the end of the track leading to the jungle.
Returning to Globe Walk, I continue north, presumably still accompanied by Paido, though he hasn't been mentioned for a while, and reach a quadrangle. An imposing building bears a flaming sword-shaped sign that reads 'Temple of the Sword', and beyond it a track leads to a watchtower. The Mongoose edit has fixed some bad grammar here, and also sorted the different options into a more sensible order. I don't have a map of Tharro (wherever you have to go to get one, it's obviously not the local mapmaker's) or Pathsmanship, so I miss out on some hints about the region, but that flaming sword reminds me of my own magical weapon, so I decide to check out the Temple.
An old man greets us and leads us to a refectory. A monk brings us bowls of stew, and at this point I must act on metaknowledge because Divination is slacking again. Between my memories of past attempts at the book and the fact that referring to The Magnamund Companion reveals the 'blessing' the monk said over the stew to be Giak for, 'Die in pain,' I think I'll abstain from eating.
The books are inconsistent regarding Lone Wolf's knowledge of the Giak tongue: I couldn't understand what was yelled by one of the Giaks attacking Banedon back in the first book, and obviously I'm not expected to have understood the 'blessing', or the text would have said something, but in book 2 I was able to understand the scroll carried by my would-be assassin, which was written in Giak. Obviously it's possible to know a written language without being able to understand the spoken version - otherwise deaf people couldn't learn to read - but given the potential advantages of being able to make sense of what enemy troops are saying, it's odd that I've apparently not bothered trying to learn spoken Giak.
While I've been waffling on about this minor annoyance, Paido has eaten his stew. There's no way of preventing him from doing so, as far as I can tell. The monks are perturbed at my refusal to eat, and fetch a black-robed monk who carries a black iron staff. He asks if Paido has eaten, and the monks state that he did and I didn't. A little belatedly, Divination kicks in and lets me know that I'm in the presence of great evil. I draw my bow, not because I'm expecting to achieve much with an arrow, but because doing so may allow me to finish healing the 'didn't eat' damage before the inevitable fight breaks out.
The black-robed monk orders the two others present to 'summon the brothers'. I manage to shoot one of them, but the other gets out of the refectory and slams the door behind him. I've finished healing by now, so I draw the Sommerswerd and attack. The monk parries my blow with his staff, and Paido cries out and collapses. While I'm distracted, the monk launches a psychic attack, but Psi-screen blocks it. He then drops his disguise, transforming into the hideous shape of a Helghast. And a remarkably powerful one, too: its Combat Skill is significantly higher than that of the Darklord I had to fight at the end of book 5. At least it's vulnerable to Psi-surge, and while using that Discipline costs me Endurance, the expense is justified by the extra damage I'll inflict (and the slightly reduced damage I'll take) as a result of using it. I'll further improve my odds by taking that Alether, as I'm pretty sure this is the toughest fight in the book.
Too tough for me on this occasion: a series of poor rolls meant that I wound up dying, and the Helghast narrowly survived. Still, it was just a string of low numbers that doomed me there, so I shouldn't have to redesign my character to have a chance of winning on a subsequent attempt (good thing too, as I'd have to replay at least the preceding book as well for any changes in Discipline selection to make enough of a difference).
Incidentally, as I've so often been critical of edits made for the Mongoose Books reissues, I think it only fair to point out that the section covering this fight contained a serious error in the first edition (referring to Combat Skill rather than Endurance when describing the effect of the Helghast's psychic attack if Lone Wolf lacks Psi-screen), which has been put right in the newer version.
Out of curiosity, I worked out what the outcome of the fatal fight would have been if I hadn't bothered with Psi-surge. I wouldn't have died so quickly, and based on what I rolled for the additional rounds, the Helghast would have died at the same time I did, but I still wouldn't have survived. Still, that does make me wonder if it really is worth using Psi-surge after all in this instance. Food for thought when I replay the book.
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
The Vessel Grim and Daring
Roughly half way between the first place I lived after moving to Hull and the first place I worked after moving to Hull, there used to be a second-hand bookshop. It being so conveniently located, I visited it a lot. To the extent that within a couple of months I was offered a 'frequent customer' discount. I only ever recall seeing one gamebook in there, tucked away in the children's book section: a copy of Keith Martin's fifth Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Island of the Undead. On one occasion I had a look through it, but it failed to grab me, and languished unbought on the shelf for a long time. Possibly even until the shop closed. When I subsequently got back into collecting FF books, I regretted not having purchased it while I had the opportunity, but given my on-off relationship with gamebooks in that period, I doubt that I would have kept it all that time anyway.
In the summer of 2002, a little over eight months after I did get back into gamebooks for good, I made my first visit to America (in part to get hold of a copy of Sky Lord, though that was nowhere near my main concern). My flight was from one of the London airports, so I travelled down to Tunbridge Wells a day or two beforehand, as that was a more convenient base for travel to the airport. The day before I flew out, I went for a quick browse around the local second-hand and charity shops, and it was in the Oxfam bookshop that I found another copy of IotU, along with one other of the ten or so FF books I had yet to acquire. I bought both of them, and had a diceless go at Undead while trekking off to Tonbridge to visit the shops there (where I bought a copy of Daggers of Darkness - that was one of the most fruitful days of browsing since I found the batch of books that initially rekindled my interest). I failed as a result of attempting to climb the rigging of a ship during a storm - not the cleverest decision I've ever made in a gamebook. Probably not a decision my character should have had the option of taking, either, as in this book I play a member of a fishing community, who should be aware of the unwisdom of taking such risks.
Until recently, my people have had a mutually beneficial relationship with the wizards who were pursuing their researches into the magic of the elements on nearby Solani Island. We provided them with life's necessities, and also helped procure some of the ingredients required for their experiments, and they kept bad weather away from the region, enabling us to get more substantial and consistent catches of fish than the occupants of the fishing towns elsewhere along the coast. But recently we've had a few not-so-subtle indications that all is not well on the island. An unexpected storm, and a freak wave, both of which resulted in fatalities - the first such deaths around here in years - oh, and the minor matter of the corpse that was washed ashore and started wandering around killing goatherds until forcefully persuaded to stay dead.
A party of us decided to go to Solani and find out what's gone wrong. Another freak wave destroyed our ship during the crossing, killing almost all the crew. I get washed ashore on the island, my sword and shield lost in the wreck, but I still have my knife, and I used the good cling film to wrap my Provisions, so they're still fine. I also have the following stats (allocating dice, because it's another of those books):
Skill 12
Stamina 17
Luck 10
Presence 6
Not bad, though my character would be significantly worse off but for the extra stat. Still, the likelihood of my succeeding at this book is low, because, as with Mr. Martin's previous book, it is necessary to visit the right locations in the right order to be in with a chance, and I'm nowhere near having a clear idea of the right order. In one past attempt I got as far as the confrontation with the final enemy, but was doomed on account of lacking an essential item. Another time I didn't even get through the fight in section 1. The best I can hope for here is to learn a bit more about where to go second, third, maybe even fourth...
Back to the plot. I walk along the shore, seeking other survivors, but find only the corpse of the ship's navigator. In the illustration, he looks remarkably decomposed for someone who only died earlier today. Abruptly, the body reanimates and, upon seeing that I don't have my shield, attacks me, slurring incomprehensible gibberish about ethics in video game journalism. As I only have a knife with which to defend myself, the fight takes a long while, but I eventually manage to defeat the Sea Zombie, and find a spot of higher ground from which to survey the island. I see woodland, moorland, a hillock and a lighthouse, and choose to stick close to the shore in the hope of finding some less aggressive flotsam and jetsam.
After a while I catch sight of a wrecked rowing boat on some rocks just off-shore, and approach it in the hope of finding some supplies. I manage to reach the wreck without harming myself, and catch sight of a few potentially useful items on the sea bed. Diving for them is a bit of bother, especially on account of a typo in the section. I presume that 'roll your dice' is supposed to be 'roll four dice', as two would make this far too easy, whereas rolling all the dice I own (or even just all the six-sided dice on the desk in front of me) would pretty much guarantee failure.
I manage to retrieve a chest and a net, but don't have the endurance to acquire a bottle. As I'm resurfacing from my last dive, a Squirting Octopus squirts a mass of ink at me, and I get some of the stuff in my eyes. Temporarily partially blinded, I suffer an Attack Strength penalty in the ensuing fight, and don't get to use the net against the Octopus (and I think this is the only situation in which the net is of any use). Thanks to my high Skill, even the penalties for lacking a shield and having ink in my eyes don't reduce my advantage enough to allow the Octopus to do any damage, but things would have been dicier if I'd gone with an 'as-rolled' character.
Forcing open the chest, I find some money, a pot of glue, and a sword. The latter will speed up subsequent fights, but I'm not yet sure of the circumstances under which the rest of the chest's contents might come in handy. Nor do I know how or when I'd have benefited from being able to get that bottle, so I hope it's not part of a chain of acquisitions that would eventually bring me something essential.
So, where next? Based on memories of variable patchiness, I'm pretty sure that there are reasons for not yet going to the woods, the moor or the hillock, which only leaves the lighthouse at this stage. I have an impression that even there I'd need an item I don't yet own, but maybe it can be picked up along the way. The text does describe it as 'distant', so...
...so it's rather odd to be told that I 'soon' find myself at the foot of the lighthouse. Which is in darkness, and gives off the impression of something cold and evil lurking within. Close by is the wrecked ship where my first IotU character died. I don't remember finding anything of use on the deck, but that attempt at the book was a dozen years ago, so maybe I should double-check. I ought to be safe as long as I don't try climbing the rigging again.
There's an intact rowing boat close to the shore, which enables me to row out to the wreck. There are more options for exploration here than I'd remembered. Back in 2002 I must have decided to check out what looks like a body in the crow's nest before heading below decks or checking out the hold. This time I go below decks.
The seamen's mess appears to contain nothing of interest, but there are some other doors down here. One has a magical symbol on it, and should probably be avoided until I can find some kind of countermeasure. There's a pair of doors that might lead to the hold, but I'll leave them for the moment as well. That just leaves the cabin door with no distinctive features. This turns out to lead to the Captain's cabin, which is full of interesting-looking items. Plus the remains of the Captain, which have become a Greater Ghoul. I'm really glad I have a sword by now, as this is one fight that I need to finish quickly: Keith Martin's enhanced Ghouls are able to paralyse their victims more quickly than those in other FF books. Alas, even doing standard damage, I am not able to kill the Greater Ghoul before it gets in enough hits to immobilise me, after which I get eaten alive.
Well, I learned a little new stuff that time. Whether it will help me on future attempts at the book or just lead me down a false trail remains to be seen, but this playthrough has been more fruitful than some I could mention.
In the summer of 2002, a little over eight months after I did get back into gamebooks for good, I made my first visit to America (in part to get hold of a copy of Sky Lord, though that was nowhere near my main concern). My flight was from one of the London airports, so I travelled down to Tunbridge Wells a day or two beforehand, as that was a more convenient base for travel to the airport. The day before I flew out, I went for a quick browse around the local second-hand and charity shops, and it was in the Oxfam bookshop that I found another copy of IotU, along with one other of the ten or so FF books I had yet to acquire. I bought both of them, and had a diceless go at Undead while trekking off to Tonbridge to visit the shops there (where I bought a copy of Daggers of Darkness - that was one of the most fruitful days of browsing since I found the batch of books that initially rekindled my interest). I failed as a result of attempting to climb the rigging of a ship during a storm - not the cleverest decision I've ever made in a gamebook. Probably not a decision my character should have had the option of taking, either, as in this book I play a member of a fishing community, who should be aware of the unwisdom of taking such risks.
Until recently, my people have had a mutually beneficial relationship with the wizards who were pursuing their researches into the magic of the elements on nearby Solani Island. We provided them with life's necessities, and also helped procure some of the ingredients required for their experiments, and they kept bad weather away from the region, enabling us to get more substantial and consistent catches of fish than the occupants of the fishing towns elsewhere along the coast. But recently we've had a few not-so-subtle indications that all is not well on the island. An unexpected storm, and a freak wave, both of which resulted in fatalities - the first such deaths around here in years - oh, and the minor matter of the corpse that was washed ashore and started wandering around killing goatherds until forcefully persuaded to stay dead.
A party of us decided to go to Solani and find out what's gone wrong. Another freak wave destroyed our ship during the crossing, killing almost all the crew. I get washed ashore on the island, my sword and shield lost in the wreck, but I still have my knife, and I used the good cling film to wrap my Provisions, so they're still fine. I also have the following stats (allocating dice, because it's another of those books):
Skill 12
Stamina 17
Luck 10
Presence 6
Not bad, though my character would be significantly worse off but for the extra stat. Still, the likelihood of my succeeding at this book is low, because, as with Mr. Martin's previous book, it is necessary to visit the right locations in the right order to be in with a chance, and I'm nowhere near having a clear idea of the right order. In one past attempt I got as far as the confrontation with the final enemy, but was doomed on account of lacking an essential item. Another time I didn't even get through the fight in section 1. The best I can hope for here is to learn a bit more about where to go second, third, maybe even fourth...
Back to the plot. I walk along the shore, seeking other survivors, but find only the corpse of the ship's navigator. In the illustration, he looks remarkably decomposed for someone who only died earlier today. Abruptly, the body reanimates and, upon seeing that I don't have my shield, attacks me, slurring incomprehensible gibberish about ethics in video game journalism. As I only have a knife with which to defend myself, the fight takes a long while, but I eventually manage to defeat the Sea Zombie, and find a spot of higher ground from which to survey the island. I see woodland, moorland, a hillock and a lighthouse, and choose to stick close to the shore in the hope of finding some less aggressive flotsam and jetsam.
After a while I catch sight of a wrecked rowing boat on some rocks just off-shore, and approach it in the hope of finding some supplies. I manage to reach the wreck without harming myself, and catch sight of a few potentially useful items on the sea bed. Diving for them is a bit of bother, especially on account of a typo in the section. I presume that 'roll your dice' is supposed to be 'roll four dice', as two would make this far too easy, whereas rolling all the dice I own (or even just all the six-sided dice on the desk in front of me) would pretty much guarantee failure.
I manage to retrieve a chest and a net, but don't have the endurance to acquire a bottle. As I'm resurfacing from my last dive, a Squirting Octopus squirts a mass of ink at me, and I get some of the stuff in my eyes. Temporarily partially blinded, I suffer an Attack Strength penalty in the ensuing fight, and don't get to use the net against the Octopus (and I think this is the only situation in which the net is of any use). Thanks to my high Skill, even the penalties for lacking a shield and having ink in my eyes don't reduce my advantage enough to allow the Octopus to do any damage, but things would have been dicier if I'd gone with an 'as-rolled' character.
Forcing open the chest, I find some money, a pot of glue, and a sword. The latter will speed up subsequent fights, but I'm not yet sure of the circumstances under which the rest of the chest's contents might come in handy. Nor do I know how or when I'd have benefited from being able to get that bottle, so I hope it's not part of a chain of acquisitions that would eventually bring me something essential.
So, where next? Based on memories of variable patchiness, I'm pretty sure that there are reasons for not yet going to the woods, the moor or the hillock, which only leaves the lighthouse at this stage. I have an impression that even there I'd need an item I don't yet own, but maybe it can be picked up along the way. The text does describe it as 'distant', so...
...so it's rather odd to be told that I 'soon' find myself at the foot of the lighthouse. Which is in darkness, and gives off the impression of something cold and evil lurking within. Close by is the wrecked ship where my first IotU character died. I don't remember finding anything of use on the deck, but that attempt at the book was a dozen years ago, so maybe I should double-check. I ought to be safe as long as I don't try climbing the rigging again.
There's an intact rowing boat close to the shore, which enables me to row out to the wreck. There are more options for exploration here than I'd remembered. Back in 2002 I must have decided to check out what looks like a body in the crow's nest before heading below decks or checking out the hold. This time I go below decks.
The seamen's mess appears to contain nothing of interest, but there are some other doors down here. One has a magical symbol on it, and should probably be avoided until I can find some kind of countermeasure. There's a pair of doors that might lead to the hold, but I'll leave them for the moment as well. That just leaves the cabin door with no distinctive features. This turns out to lead to the Captain's cabin, which is full of interesting-looking items. Plus the remains of the Captain, which have become a Greater Ghoul. I'm really glad I have a sword by now, as this is one fight that I need to finish quickly: Keith Martin's enhanced Ghouls are able to paralyse their victims more quickly than those in other FF books. Alas, even doing standard damage, I am not able to kill the Greater Ghoul before it gets in enough hits to immobilise me, after which I get eaten alive.
Well, I learned a little new stuff that time. Whether it will help me on future attempts at the book or just lead me down a false trail remains to be seen, but this playthrough has been more fruitful than some I could mention.
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
An Unreality Which Calls for a Different Kind of Moral Code
In recognition of what today is, I'm altering my playthrough schedule to bring forward book 4 of Simon Farrell and Jon Sutherland's Real Life Gamebooks series, Through the Wire. For the most part, the RLG books were based around conflicts from world history, and many of them offered the reader the opportunity to choose sides. This book is, I believe, the first one that didn't, which is understandable in view of the subject matter: escape from a Nazi POW camp. Yes, I know that's World War Two, and this is the centenary of the First World War, but I'm not aware of any gamebooks with a WWI setting, so this is the most thematically appropriate one I have.
No Language roll required. A bit surprising, but given that I've already been through at least one unavoidable 'do or die' roll, I'm okay with not having to risk another 5-in-12 shot at failure. Madeleine introduces me to her new 'friend', I wonder out loud how her husband would react to this, rather awkwardly shoehorning in a reference to his being a man with some authority even under the occupation, and the German abruptly remembers some paperwork to which he must attend. I resolve to stay awake for the rest of the journey, and pretend to be married to Madeleine.
We reach Paris and change trains without any trouble, and Madeleine gets some rest on this leg of the journey. In the coat pocket I find some food and a letter addressed to me, asking me to take Madeleine with me when I cross to England, so she'll be safe even if Pierre does get arrested. I accept this mission, but won't let Madeleine know about it yet: she will probably be reluctant to abandon her father, and the easier it would be for her to get back to him, the greater the risk of her trying it.
At Arras we have to pass through a security check, and a man in civilian clothes takes an interest in us. This time there is a Language roll, and I fail it. Unable to understand what he's saying, I panic, shoving him over the barrier and sending one of the guards flying into the others with a blow to the chin. Grabbing Madeleine, I race through the brief opening I've created, and my Luck does not let me down: the guards take long enough to pick themselves up that we can vanish into the crowds in the nearby market before any shots can be fired. Phew!
We proceed to the contact address Pierre gave me, and are hidden in a loft while our new host, Monsieur Ebonar, awaits an opportunity to contact London and make arrangements for my channel crossing. Getting him alone for a moment, I show him Pierre's letter, and he reluctantly agrees to have Madeleine taken across as well.
Prior to the next stage of the journey, Ebonar gives me a sten gun, and Madeleine explains the weapon's primary idiosyncrasy to me. We get into a truck that heads for Hesdin, accompanied by a few resistance members, but catch sight of a vehicle coming our way. At this time of night we're not authorised to be travelling, so the driver stops and pretends to be dealing with engine problems while the rest of us hide in the bushes nearby. The other vehicle turns out to be transporting a whole platoon of German infantry, who get out when it stops. I decide to wait and see if the driver can successfully bluff them, rather than opening fire straight off. A good choice, as he is able to play on the Germans' contempt for French workmanship and convince them that he's only out this late because his truck broke down. One of the Germans shows off his technical skills and gets the engine working (easy when there's nothing actually wrong with it), and in exchange for a bottle of cognac, the officer in charge agrees to keep quiet about the driver's seemingly involuntary curfew-breaking.
We continue to the pick-up site, and wait for the plane that is coming for me. When it arrives, I tell Madeleine that this isn't going to be quite the goodbye-ee she was expecting, and while she initially protests, Ebonar and I are able to persuade her that she should accompany me. The flight back to England is uneventful, and cars are waiting to take me to London and Madeleine to the Free French HQ. I give her my address, so we can keep in touch.
Rather than being returned to my squadron, I'm taken to see a Major Dunbar, who works for the SOE. Given my recent experiences, he'd like to recruit me for covert operations in mainland Europe, and wants to send me and Madeleine back across to support the Maquis, assist further escaping POWs, and generally create bother for the Nazis. I accept, and while that marks the successful conclusion of my escape, it's also the start of a whole new adventure, which falls outside the scope of this book.
Well, I enjoyed that. The book has its flaws, such as the editing slip-ups I mentioned early on, but they're very minor issues. As it went on, I got drawn into it, and there was a definite sense of rising tension towards the end. I'd have no problem with playing it again - and I get the impression that there are more than enough alternate routes through the book to make doing so worthwhile. If the other RLGs I've not yet tried are up to the same standard, I shan't regret having collected the series.
I got my copy of TtW from a local charity shop, and remember starting to look through it on my way home, and being surprised at the point in my character's life at which the narrative commenced. What I learned from that brief look at the book will influence my choices in character creation.
As with the other Farrell and Sutherland gamebook series I own, character creation involves a selection of skills and a number of points to allocate among them. 50 points again, but this time there are 7 different skills (though none of them cost double). No skill can be lower than 2, or higher than 12 (and unless the book sometimes applies modifiers to rolls, going above 12 would be wasteful anyway, since I can only fail a roll by exceeding the relevant skill score on two dice).
Pilot: 8
Agility: 8
Luck: 7
Persuasion: 9
Firearm: 6
Language: 7
Driving: 5
More balanced than the sample character shown in the book. Time will tell whether or not I have cause to regret not min-maxing my character more thoroughly.
In this adventure I am Alistair Thompson, a relatively recently-qualified Flight Officer in the RAF. It's September 1940, and I have a Luftwaffe air-raid to intercept. Yes, I have yet to become a POW, and it wouldn't entirely surprise me to find that there's a fair chance of my not surviving long enough to get captured. That's why I didn't take a lower Piloting score - I can potentially try and avoid stealing cars if I make it out of the camp (assuming I make it in there in the first place), but when I'm already airborne by section 1, not flying isn't an option.
I choose to target the bombers, inflicting engine damage on one of them in my first pass. Go for it again, or hope to have done enough, and pick a new target? I'll try to prang another kite... which decision leads slightly jarringly to the end of this phase of the engagement. The German planes are turning back, most of their bombs wasted at sea, and my squadron leader instructs us to 'escort them home'. I opt not to get too close to the retreating enemy, which takes me to a section that appears better suited to a version of me that took damage in battle: when several dozen more enemy fighters approach, I warn my leader that I may have a problem staying with the rest of my wing.
We're heavily outnumbered in this new fight, but I still manage to take out another Nazi plane before losing a wing. There's a mildly sloppy bit of design here: I'm at section 73, and the 'If you fail' direction for the Luck roll leads to 74. I make the roll, just, but can see that if I'd rolled slightly higher, that would have been the end of my adventure. As it is, I bail out and parachute into the sea. My kit includes a rubber dinghy, which I am somehow able to inflate while bobbing up and down in the water. Time passes, and I get picked up by a German patrol boat. For me, the war is at least on standby.
I am taken ashore at Calais and, upon seeing the number of ammunition crates carelessly strewn around, wish that a British bomber squadron could be attacking here. What, right now, when there's a good chance I'd perish in the conflagration? I'm taken for interrogation, where I am accused of shooting at a pilot who had bailed out. I deny the charge, and (as far as I can tell) manage to satisfy the man questioning me without giving away any information I ought not to let slip. He has me driven to Luftwaffe HQ, where I am locked into a cell for the night.
In the morning a guard who speaks no English brings me food and coffee. I try out my Language skills on him, and manage to ascertain that I'm to be taken to Stalag Luft 14. I'm then given the option of attacking him as he turns to leave, but I think it unlikely that this is a genuine chance to escape, so I make no trouble. A few minutes later I'm taken out to a truck, which is being used to transport another seven downed British airmen to the camp. Two nervous young soldiers with guns keep watch on us.
The truck heads inland, eventually stopping in a small wood to allow some of the guards to answer the call of nature. We get an opportunity to stretch our legs, and I could try sneaking away, but I'm reluctant to try anything liable to upset a nervous guard with a machine-gun. A couple of my fellow prisoners start brawling, and when the guards attempt to separate them, the others rush them. In the resultant fracas, three of the airmen are killed, and nobody gets away. Indeed, it appears that for one of the men who don't survive the fight, not even death counts as an escape, because six prisoners are herded back onto the truck. We get handcuffed to our seats for the rest of the journey, and locked up in local jails whenever the truck makes a stop for the night.
Eventually we get to our destination, and are handed over to the camp guards. After being processed into the camp, three of us seek out the Senior British Officer, Group Captain Evans. He notes down our details, assigns me to Hut 113, and advises me to get some rest. I do so, not wanting to get a reputation as the wrong kind of troublemaker.
The following morning I learn of the twice-daily head-counts, which are almost the only interaction that occurs between the Germans and the prisoners. Over breakfast I try to find out more about the camp's layout and routines. When I ask about the camp's location, one of the other prisoners asks if I'm planning on escaping, so I enquire about the Escape Committee. Not unreasonably, the man is unwilling to discuss such matters with a complete stranger.
Wandering around the huts, I spot a group of French prisoners loitering in a decidedly suspicious manner, but decide not to stick my nose into their business. Nothing significant happens for the rest of the day, but sirens wake me at around three in the morning. For a moment I think it's an air raid warning, but then another prisoner notes that somebody is trying to escape. I indulge my curiosity, and look through a window, spotting a man in civilian clothes heading this way at some speed. On instinct, I open the window to let him in. He's the unsuccessful would-be escapee, a Belgian POW, who managed to evade the searchlights well enough that his having taken refuge in Hut 113 didn't get noticed by the guards. My hutmates and I manage to smuggle him out to the morning head-count, at which he is able to rejoin his compatriots without any further bother.
Later that day, I get an introduction to the Escape Committee, my nocturnal assistance to the luckless Belgian having indicated me to be the right sort of chap. I get to choose the type of escape attempt in which I will be involved: tunnelling, over the wire, or bluffing my way out. I go for the middle option, not just because of the title of the book, but also because I'd probably need stronger language skills for the bluff route, and I'm not keen on the prospect of being buried alive if a tunnel should collapse.
Wire-based escapes are overseen by another Belgian, who has been responsible for an impressively high proportion of the successful escapes made since he came to the camp. The current plan involves cutting the wires a night in advance, and disguising the damage with fuse wire. I use Persuasion to get myself added to the group that will be breaking out soon, but don't attempt to become their leader. The only other Briton in the six-strong party takes that responsibility, setting the date three days from now, and insisting that we split up once we're out, to make it harder for the Germans to recapture us.
Nothing of note happens during the intervening time. One by one we squeeze through the gap in the fence. One of the Frenchmen in the party slips and falls, but my Luck holds, and the guards don't hear the sound. We hurry into the cover of the nearby forest, and then go our separate ways. The Belgian border is closer than the Swiss one, so as I'm not good with ground-based vehicles, I'll go for the shorter walk.
Emerging from the forest, I catch sight of a nearby village and a railway line. The faster I get away, the better, so I make for the train track, hoping to be able to grab a ride on a passing train. A Lucky jump gets me onto a box-car, though I hurt my arm and incur a penalty to Agility in the process of leaping aboard. That suggests that the consequences of failing the Luck roll would have been really bad.
After concealing myself, I fall asleep. When I wake, the train has stopped. Sneaking off, I soon find that I'm in France. Not quite what I'd planned, but under the circumstances, certainly preferable to, say, Berlin. Further along the track I can see a railway worker, and while there is a possibility that he might turn out to be a collaborator, I'm not likely to get much further on my own, so I risk approaching him.
He can tell from my uniform that I'm a British airman, and seems worried. A good sign, as someone who wanted to betray me to the Nazis would probably keep up a more welcoming facade. He lends me a less distinctive coat while leading me to meet someone who can help. This new contact, Pierre, is also a little troubled at the sight of me, but lets me in. He explains that he's helped a few escaped POWs back to England, but thinks that the Germans suspect his involvement, so the quicker I move on, the better. His daughter Madeleine will accompany me on the train journey to Arras, a mere hundred or so miles from the coast.
For the journey I am provided with a trench coat and, more worryingly, a pistol. Considering my below-average Firearms skill, I hope I won't have to use it. We reach the station and board the train without incident, and once we're on our way, I doze off again.
After a while I become aware of a conversation taking place close by, but pretend to still be asleep. I might overhear something important, and even if I don't, it means I won't risk blowing my cover with a botched Language roll. The speakers are Madeleine and a German who's trying to chat her up, though his intentions do not become clear until she's referred to me as her brother. She claims to be married, and expecting to meet her husband at the end of the line, and I continue to keep quiet. The German persists in making a pass, though, and now the text insists that I intervene. Given Jon Sutherland's co-authorship of the book, I'm not surprised to find myself being forced into a course of action. Still, there seems to have been a fair bit more freedom to choose than in some of Sutherland's work, and it is more reasonable that I should find myself compelled to act in this situation.
Pilot: 8
Agility: 8
Luck: 7
Persuasion: 9
Firearm: 6
Language: 7
Driving: 5
More balanced than the sample character shown in the book. Time will tell whether or not I have cause to regret not min-maxing my character more thoroughly.
In this adventure I am Alistair Thompson, a relatively recently-qualified Flight Officer in the RAF. It's September 1940, and I have a Luftwaffe air-raid to intercept. Yes, I have yet to become a POW, and it wouldn't entirely surprise me to find that there's a fair chance of my not surviving long enough to get captured. That's why I didn't take a lower Piloting score - I can potentially try and avoid stealing cars if I make it out of the camp (assuming I make it in there in the first place), but when I'm already airborne by section 1, not flying isn't an option.
I choose to target the bombers, inflicting engine damage on one of them in my first pass. Go for it again, or hope to have done enough, and pick a new target? I'll try to prang another kite... which decision leads slightly jarringly to the end of this phase of the engagement. The German planes are turning back, most of their bombs wasted at sea, and my squadron leader instructs us to 'escort them home'. I opt not to get too close to the retreating enemy, which takes me to a section that appears better suited to a version of me that took damage in battle: when several dozen more enemy fighters approach, I warn my leader that I may have a problem staying with the rest of my wing.
We're heavily outnumbered in this new fight, but I still manage to take out another Nazi plane before losing a wing. There's a mildly sloppy bit of design here: I'm at section 73, and the 'If you fail' direction for the Luck roll leads to 74. I make the roll, just, but can see that if I'd rolled slightly higher, that would have been the end of my adventure. As it is, I bail out and parachute into the sea. My kit includes a rubber dinghy, which I am somehow able to inflate while bobbing up and down in the water. Time passes, and I get picked up by a German patrol boat. For me, the war is at least on standby.
I am taken ashore at Calais and, upon seeing the number of ammunition crates carelessly strewn around, wish that a British bomber squadron could be attacking here. What, right now, when there's a good chance I'd perish in the conflagration? I'm taken for interrogation, where I am accused of shooting at a pilot who had bailed out. I deny the charge, and (as far as I can tell) manage to satisfy the man questioning me without giving away any information I ought not to let slip. He has me driven to Luftwaffe HQ, where I am locked into a cell for the night.
In the morning a guard who speaks no English brings me food and coffee. I try out my Language skills on him, and manage to ascertain that I'm to be taken to Stalag Luft 14. I'm then given the option of attacking him as he turns to leave, but I think it unlikely that this is a genuine chance to escape, so I make no trouble. A few minutes later I'm taken out to a truck, which is being used to transport another seven downed British airmen to the camp. Two nervous young soldiers with guns keep watch on us.
The truck heads inland, eventually stopping in a small wood to allow some of the guards to answer the call of nature. We get an opportunity to stretch our legs, and I could try sneaking away, but I'm reluctant to try anything liable to upset a nervous guard with a machine-gun. A couple of my fellow prisoners start brawling, and when the guards attempt to separate them, the others rush them. In the resultant fracas, three of the airmen are killed, and nobody gets away. Indeed, it appears that for one of the men who don't survive the fight, not even death counts as an escape, because six prisoners are herded back onto the truck. We get handcuffed to our seats for the rest of the journey, and locked up in local jails whenever the truck makes a stop for the night.
Eventually we get to our destination, and are handed over to the camp guards. After being processed into the camp, three of us seek out the Senior British Officer, Group Captain Evans. He notes down our details, assigns me to Hut 113, and advises me to get some rest. I do so, not wanting to get a reputation as the wrong kind of troublemaker.
The following morning I learn of the twice-daily head-counts, which are almost the only interaction that occurs between the Germans and the prisoners. Over breakfast I try to find out more about the camp's layout and routines. When I ask about the camp's location, one of the other prisoners asks if I'm planning on escaping, so I enquire about the Escape Committee. Not unreasonably, the man is unwilling to discuss such matters with a complete stranger.
Wandering around the huts, I spot a group of French prisoners loitering in a decidedly suspicious manner, but decide not to stick my nose into their business. Nothing significant happens for the rest of the day, but sirens wake me at around three in the morning. For a moment I think it's an air raid warning, but then another prisoner notes that somebody is trying to escape. I indulge my curiosity, and look through a window, spotting a man in civilian clothes heading this way at some speed. On instinct, I open the window to let him in. He's the unsuccessful would-be escapee, a Belgian POW, who managed to evade the searchlights well enough that his having taken refuge in Hut 113 didn't get noticed by the guards. My hutmates and I manage to smuggle him out to the morning head-count, at which he is able to rejoin his compatriots without any further bother.
Later that day, I get an introduction to the Escape Committee, my nocturnal assistance to the luckless Belgian having indicated me to be the right sort of chap. I get to choose the type of escape attempt in which I will be involved: tunnelling, over the wire, or bluffing my way out. I go for the middle option, not just because of the title of the book, but also because I'd probably need stronger language skills for the bluff route, and I'm not keen on the prospect of being buried alive if a tunnel should collapse.
Wire-based escapes are overseen by another Belgian, who has been responsible for an impressively high proportion of the successful escapes made since he came to the camp. The current plan involves cutting the wires a night in advance, and disguising the damage with fuse wire. I use Persuasion to get myself added to the group that will be breaking out soon, but don't attempt to become their leader. The only other Briton in the six-strong party takes that responsibility, setting the date three days from now, and insisting that we split up once we're out, to make it harder for the Germans to recapture us.
Nothing of note happens during the intervening time. One by one we squeeze through the gap in the fence. One of the Frenchmen in the party slips and falls, but my Luck holds, and the guards don't hear the sound. We hurry into the cover of the nearby forest, and then go our separate ways. The Belgian border is closer than the Swiss one, so as I'm not good with ground-based vehicles, I'll go for the shorter walk.
Emerging from the forest, I catch sight of a nearby village and a railway line. The faster I get away, the better, so I make for the train track, hoping to be able to grab a ride on a passing train. A Lucky jump gets me onto a box-car, though I hurt my arm and incur a penalty to Agility in the process of leaping aboard. That suggests that the consequences of failing the Luck roll would have been really bad.
After concealing myself, I fall asleep. When I wake, the train has stopped. Sneaking off, I soon find that I'm in France. Not quite what I'd planned, but under the circumstances, certainly preferable to, say, Berlin. Further along the track I can see a railway worker, and while there is a possibility that he might turn out to be a collaborator, I'm not likely to get much further on my own, so I risk approaching him.
He can tell from my uniform that I'm a British airman, and seems worried. A good sign, as someone who wanted to betray me to the Nazis would probably keep up a more welcoming facade. He lends me a less distinctive coat while leading me to meet someone who can help. This new contact, Pierre, is also a little troubled at the sight of me, but lets me in. He explains that he's helped a few escaped POWs back to England, but thinks that the Germans suspect his involvement, so the quicker I move on, the better. His daughter Madeleine will accompany me on the train journey to Arras, a mere hundred or so miles from the coast.
For the journey I am provided with a trench coat and, more worryingly, a pistol. Considering my below-average Firearms skill, I hope I won't have to use it. We reach the station and board the train without incident, and once we're on our way, I doze off again.
After a while I become aware of a conversation taking place close by, but pretend to still be asleep. I might overhear something important, and even if I don't, it means I won't risk blowing my cover with a botched Language roll. The speakers are Madeleine and a German who's trying to chat her up, though his intentions do not become clear until she's referred to me as her brother. She claims to be married, and expecting to meet her husband at the end of the line, and I continue to keep quiet. The German persists in making a pass, though, and now the text insists that I intervene. Given Jon Sutherland's co-authorship of the book, I'm not surprised to find myself being forced into a course of action. Still, there seems to have been a fair bit more freedom to choose than in some of Sutherland's work, and it is more reasonable that I should find myself compelled to act in this situation.
No Language roll required. A bit surprising, but given that I've already been through at least one unavoidable 'do or die' roll, I'm okay with not having to risk another 5-in-12 shot at failure. Madeleine introduces me to her new 'friend', I wonder out loud how her husband would react to this, rather awkwardly shoehorning in a reference to his being a man with some authority even under the occupation, and the German abruptly remembers some paperwork to which he must attend. I resolve to stay awake for the rest of the journey, and pretend to be married to Madeleine.
We reach Paris and change trains without any trouble, and Madeleine gets some rest on this leg of the journey. In the coat pocket I find some food and a letter addressed to me, asking me to take Madeleine with me when I cross to England, so she'll be safe even if Pierre does get arrested. I accept this mission, but won't let Madeleine know about it yet: she will probably be reluctant to abandon her father, and the easier it would be for her to get back to him, the greater the risk of her trying it.
At Arras we have to pass through a security check, and a man in civilian clothes takes an interest in us. This time there is a Language roll, and I fail it. Unable to understand what he's saying, I panic, shoving him over the barrier and sending one of the guards flying into the others with a blow to the chin. Grabbing Madeleine, I race through the brief opening I've created, and my Luck does not let me down: the guards take long enough to pick themselves up that we can vanish into the crowds in the nearby market before any shots can be fired. Phew!
We proceed to the contact address Pierre gave me, and are hidden in a loft while our new host, Monsieur Ebonar, awaits an opportunity to contact London and make arrangements for my channel crossing. Getting him alone for a moment, I show him Pierre's letter, and he reluctantly agrees to have Madeleine taken across as well.
Prior to the next stage of the journey, Ebonar gives me a sten gun, and Madeleine explains the weapon's primary idiosyncrasy to me. We get into a truck that heads for Hesdin, accompanied by a few resistance members, but catch sight of a vehicle coming our way. At this time of night we're not authorised to be travelling, so the driver stops and pretends to be dealing with engine problems while the rest of us hide in the bushes nearby. The other vehicle turns out to be transporting a whole platoon of German infantry, who get out when it stops. I decide to wait and see if the driver can successfully bluff them, rather than opening fire straight off. A good choice, as he is able to play on the Germans' contempt for French workmanship and convince them that he's only out this late because his truck broke down. One of the Germans shows off his technical skills and gets the engine working (easy when there's nothing actually wrong with it), and in exchange for a bottle of cognac, the officer in charge agrees to keep quiet about the driver's seemingly involuntary curfew-breaking.
We continue to the pick-up site, and wait for the plane that is coming for me. When it arrives, I tell Madeleine that this isn't going to be quite the goodbye-ee she was expecting, and while she initially protests, Ebonar and I are able to persuade her that she should accompany me. The flight back to England is uneventful, and cars are waiting to take me to London and Madeleine to the Free French HQ. I give her my address, so we can keep in touch.
Rather than being returned to my squadron, I'm taken to see a Major Dunbar, who works for the SOE. Given my recent experiences, he'd like to recruit me for covert operations in mainland Europe, and wants to send me and Madeleine back across to support the Maquis, assist further escaping POWs, and generally create bother for the Nazis. I accept, and while that marks the successful conclusion of my escape, it's also the start of a whole new adventure, which falls outside the scope of this book.
Well, I enjoyed that. The book has its flaws, such as the editing slip-ups I mentioned early on, but they're very minor issues. As it went on, I got drawn into it, and there was a definite sense of rising tension towards the end. I'd have no problem with playing it again - and I get the impression that there are more than enough alternate routes through the book to make doing so worthwhile. If the other RLGs I've not yet tried are up to the same standard, I shan't regret having collected the series.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Freshly Squeezed
As I mentioned a while back, book 24 of Flying Buffalo's Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure range contains three separate adventures. The first one in the book, which is the only one to get its title on the front cover and spine, is Catherine DeMott's When the Cat's Away. Beyond the basic premise, I know nothing of what it involves, as I got distracted by one of the other adventures in the book.
This adventure is exclusively for low-level magic-users, so when I was preparing to start playing Red Circle and rolled up a character who could be a wizard, I saved that character for when I got around to playing Cat, and rolled up someone else to die in Circle. This is the character who's been on ice for almost a year.
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 13
Luck: 12
Constitution: 11
Dexterity: 12
Charisma: 10
Speed: 13
Despite having fractionally above-average stats, this character is actually a little underqualified - to fully fit the profile outlined on the back of the book, I'd need Strength, Luck and Dexterity to each be about 4 points higher, but the likelihood of ever rolling such a character (and still getting an Intelligence high enough to permit magic use) is negligible.
My character is apprenticed to Servald the wizard, and not exactly fond of him. Nor of his familiar, a blue-furred snake-lizard known as a ferrid. Servald has gone away to the Triennial Conjurer's Convention, leaving me and the ferrid behind. At the start of the adventure I'm mopping the floor, watched by the ferrid, but when the beast settles down for a nap, I decide to take advantage of this rare opportunity to snoop around the place. Almost certainly a very bad idea, but bad ideas are practically a T&T character's stock-in-trade.
There are three areas of Servald's house into which I've never been allowed: the secret room in the east, the study (which is kept locked) and the door from behind which strange noises come, down in the dungeon. I'll try the secret room, as it sounds like the option least likely to leave evidence of my misbehaviour.
Included in this book is an errata sheet for several of the later T&T solos. I don't know if it was part of the actual release, or inserted by a previous owner. Regardless, I'm glad it's there, as the section number given for the decision I just made is the wrong one, but with the errata I can get to where I need to go. The door to the secret room is behind a tapestry, and bears silver runes which I think say either 'Golden Dew Pool' or 'Go Back, You Fool'. Reassuring myself that the second interpretation need not be relevant, as Servald may have got the door cheap and been unable (or not bothered) to remove the irrelevant-in-this-context warning, I open the door to find out what's behind it.
The room beyond is circular, and has a strong magical aura. It has one other exit, with a curtain across it, and contains an ugly obsidian statue of a Dwarf, with a vial of orange(ish) liquid. The vial could be removed, so I try doing just that. The contents smell like the fruit that Servald sometimes has with breakfast. My character assumes that this is a secret stash of juice, and recklessly downs it, and the room seems to spin. A massive force presses down on me, making it hard to take a breath, and the Saving Roll required to break free is a tough one, so I'll at least need to throw a double to have any chance of success.
I fail, but the consequences are not immediately fatal. I just lose 3 points of Constitution, permanently. Does that mean that I just reduce my base and current Constitution by 3, or am I going to be stuck at 8 Constitution (or less) for the rest of this character's life, regardless of what stat boosts might come my way? I doubt that I'll last long enough to need a decisive ruling one way or the other.
I could get back to my mop now, but that would make for a pretty dull adventure. What's behind that curtain? Another circular room (does Ms. DeMott have some grudge against players who make maps?), which smells like the juice that what I just drank wasn't, and has a grapevine design on the floor. In the middle of the room is a ten-foot high crystal structure, containing something, but I can't make it out because the crystal is frosted. Also present is a pedestal with raised projections on it.
I look at the pedestal first, which is probably a very good thing. Each of the projections has an inscription by it, and I note that the words on there include 'mix', 'chop' and 'liquefy'. It looks to me as if the crystal structure might be a giant blender. Unless I want to try and test that theory with a closer inspection (quite possibly too close for comfort), I'm left only with a choice between pushing one of the projections or abandoning my investigation of this place.
Click! The projection I chose goes down. It won't come up again, so I try pressing on another, and the first one comes back up. Nothing else seems to happen. My character has apparently concluded that the crystal structure must be a sauna, and I'm offered the option of going into it. No, thank you. As I've already checked out the statue, the only remaining option is to get back to the mop. But I get a small Experience bonus for my negligible discoveries and absurd inference.
I'm still cleaning the floor when Servald gets back. He asks if anything noteworthy happened while he was away, and I say nothing about my little 'adventure'. The ferrid winks at me. Perhaps it's not so bad after all.
I'm accustomed to having T&T adventures end remarkably quickly, but that's usually because something fatal befell my character. Actually succeeding (for some values of 'succeed') after so few decisions and rolls is more unusual, and quite surprising in an adventure with over 250 sections. Presumably the study and dungeon door lead to more expansive encounters. I'll have to have another go at WtCA to find out, but I own enough other solos that I have yet to try even once that it'll be a while before I do attempt it again.
This adventure is exclusively for low-level magic-users, so when I was preparing to start playing Red Circle and rolled up a character who could be a wizard, I saved that character for when I got around to playing Cat, and rolled up someone else to die in Circle. This is the character who's been on ice for almost a year.
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 13
Luck: 12
Constitution: 11
Dexterity: 12
Charisma: 10
Speed: 13
Despite having fractionally above-average stats, this character is actually a little underqualified - to fully fit the profile outlined on the back of the book, I'd need Strength, Luck and Dexterity to each be about 4 points higher, but the likelihood of ever rolling such a character (and still getting an Intelligence high enough to permit magic use) is negligible.
My character is apprenticed to Servald the wizard, and not exactly fond of him. Nor of his familiar, a blue-furred snake-lizard known as a ferrid. Servald has gone away to the Triennial Conjurer's Convention, leaving me and the ferrid behind. At the start of the adventure I'm mopping the floor, watched by the ferrid, but when the beast settles down for a nap, I decide to take advantage of this rare opportunity to snoop around the place. Almost certainly a very bad idea, but bad ideas are practically a T&T character's stock-in-trade.
There are three areas of Servald's house into which I've never been allowed: the secret room in the east, the study (which is kept locked) and the door from behind which strange noises come, down in the dungeon. I'll try the secret room, as it sounds like the option least likely to leave evidence of my misbehaviour.
Included in this book is an errata sheet for several of the later T&T solos. I don't know if it was part of the actual release, or inserted by a previous owner. Regardless, I'm glad it's there, as the section number given for the decision I just made is the wrong one, but with the errata I can get to where I need to go. The door to the secret room is behind a tapestry, and bears silver runes which I think say either 'Golden Dew Pool' or 'Go Back, You Fool'. Reassuring myself that the second interpretation need not be relevant, as Servald may have got the door cheap and been unable (or not bothered) to remove the irrelevant-in-this-context warning, I open the door to find out what's behind it.
The room beyond is circular, and has a strong magical aura. It has one other exit, with a curtain across it, and contains an ugly obsidian statue of a Dwarf, with a vial of orange(ish) liquid. The vial could be removed, so I try doing just that. The contents smell like the fruit that Servald sometimes has with breakfast. My character assumes that this is a secret stash of juice, and recklessly downs it, and the room seems to spin. A massive force presses down on me, making it hard to take a breath, and the Saving Roll required to break free is a tough one, so I'll at least need to throw a double to have any chance of success.
I fail, but the consequences are not immediately fatal. I just lose 3 points of Constitution, permanently. Does that mean that I just reduce my base and current Constitution by 3, or am I going to be stuck at 8 Constitution (or less) for the rest of this character's life, regardless of what stat boosts might come my way? I doubt that I'll last long enough to need a decisive ruling one way or the other.
I could get back to my mop now, but that would make for a pretty dull adventure. What's behind that curtain? Another circular room (does Ms. DeMott have some grudge against players who make maps?), which smells like the juice that what I just drank wasn't, and has a grapevine design on the floor. In the middle of the room is a ten-foot high crystal structure, containing something, but I can't make it out because the crystal is frosted. Also present is a pedestal with raised projections on it.
I look at the pedestal first, which is probably a very good thing. Each of the projections has an inscription by it, and I note that the words on there include 'mix', 'chop' and 'liquefy'. It looks to me as if the crystal structure might be a giant blender. Unless I want to try and test that theory with a closer inspection (quite possibly too close for comfort), I'm left only with a choice between pushing one of the projections or abandoning my investigation of this place.
Click! The projection I chose goes down. It won't come up again, so I try pressing on another, and the first one comes back up. Nothing else seems to happen. My character has apparently concluded that the crystal structure must be a sauna, and I'm offered the option of going into it. No, thank you. As I've already checked out the statue, the only remaining option is to get back to the mop. But I get a small Experience bonus for my negligible discoveries and absurd inference.
I'm still cleaning the floor when Servald gets back. He asks if anything noteworthy happened while he was away, and I say nothing about my little 'adventure'. The ferrid winks at me. Perhaps it's not so bad after all.
I'm accustomed to having T&T adventures end remarkably quickly, but that's usually because something fatal befell my character. Actually succeeding (for some values of 'succeed') after so few decisions and rolls is more unusual, and quite surprising in an adventure with over 250 sections. Presumably the study and dungeon door lead to more expansive encounters. I'll have to have another go at WtCA to find out, but I own enough other solos that I have yet to try even once that it'll be a while before I do attempt it again.
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