Participating in a *Conspiracy* Called 'Traffic'

Today I'm back in the world of the American Steve Jackson's Car Wars Adventure Gamebooks. The second book, Fuel's Gold, which was written by Mr. Jackson along with Creede and Sharleen Lambard, is the only one in the series I've bought more than once: I got a copy not long after I started collecting the series, and then some time later I came across an eBay lot containing all the Car Wars books I still lacked, plus Fuel's Gold, and bid what I was prepared to pay for the books I wanted. Nobody outbid me, so I completed my collection and wound up with a spare Gold.

Unlike Battle Road, the first book in the series, Gold throws me straight into the action, starting at the climax of a bout of vehicular combat. This is a professional sporting contest rather than a fight with an enemy, so defeat shouldn't mean game over, but I imagine that some or all of the damage I incur in the course of my showdown with Al Blaine's mine-slinging Morningstar is liable to have consequences when the adventure proper gets under way, or the prize money if I win will enable me to better equip my car for the mission ahead.

Character generation is as it was in the first book. The build I used last time worked well until a flukey roll caused me to crash and burn, so I'll try it again here. Thus, I have:
Driving skill 3
Gunnery skill 3
Mechanic skill 2
Prestige 1
Wealth 1
I never got into a proper fight in the first book, so this unavoidable combat may give me a better idea of how well-optimised I am.

Terminology with no in-book definition adds a complication to the battle. It may well be that 'your Driving skill roll' is exactly what the name suggests, but the rules do mention a 'Control Roll', which uses Driving skill with a modifier. If they're two distinct things, it would help to have both mentioned on the list to make it clear that one is not just a different name for the other. I'm going to assume that they just neglected to spell out that this is an unmodified roll, because while the 50% chance of hitting a mine each round that that gives me seems a bit high, the impossibility of my taking mine damage if it's a Control Roll goes too far the other way. No, wait, reading on, I see that a Control Roll would give me a 1 in 36 change of being damaged by a mine. Still unconvincingly low.

So, based on our Gunnery skills and our cars' Defense Classes, it appears that Blaine and I both need to score above 9 on two dice to inflict damage. I have the added complication of being at risk from mines (not sure why they can't damage Blaine's car once they're just lying around where anybody could drive over them, but that appears to be the case), but Blaine is low on ammunition for his machine-gun, and will have to concede defeat if my car is still functional 9 rounds from now.

Well, that was underwhelming. I took damage from a mine, Blaine's gunfire hit me once, and then I scored a hit on him, doing negligible damage but also getting to roll on the Special Damage chart, as a result of which I obliterated his gun. Given that I would have won if he'd run out of ammo, causing him to run out of guns should likewise constitute a victory for me, right?

My win increases my Prestige by 1, and in addition to the prize money, I get my car completely repaired and all weapons reloaded free of charge. I also qualify for entry in a similar contest in New York the following weekend. The one I've just won took place in Albany, which is in the region of 150 miles away - possibly a longer drive, depending on the post-apocalyptic infrastructure.

I might not make it, though, as a Colonel I know is waiting in my dressing room. The precise nature of our history with each other is left unclear, but give the talk of 'activating' me to take a courier package to Massachusetts, it's possible that I am a member of the Federal Express Division of the United States Armed Reserves about which I speculated recently. It's ostensibly a volunteer mission, but while the book offers the option of declining, that's just a bit of section number padding, as persistent refusal just leads to a no-choice between volunteering and effectively being drafted. Once I have submitted to the inevitable, the Colonel briefs me on where to get the package and gives me a pass to facilitate entry, then leaves.

Now I must decide what to drive, as I have a car for everyday use in addition to the one in which I was just fighting. As regards my 'professional' vehicle, there hasn't been time for the repairs I was promised, only for reloading the weapons, so its armour will still be in a pretty sorry state, while the other car is in better condition but not so well-armed. On this occasion I'll go with the undamaged one, though that's largely because I didn't keep a record of exactly how much armour the other one lost before I disarmed Blaine (the claim that it would be fully repaired gave me no reason to think I'd need to continue tracking the damage), and thus no longer have accurate stats for that vehicle.

As I choose which car to take, my character reflects on the possibility of using a loophole to justify ignoring the mission and heading straight to New York. Seriously? Was Joseph Campbell constantly pestering the authors about the 'refusal of the call' element of his inordinately venerated monomyth? In this setting it's possible that contract disputes are resolved not by legal wrangling but by a discreet bullet to the back of the head, so I'm getting on with the job while my skull still has only the standard number of holes in it.

Driving to Fort Caswell, I hand in my pass, and receive my payment, two other passes (colour-coded), the package I am to deliver, and more detailed instructions. I'm also presented with a form to sign, and given the option of not taking the time to read it first. Much of my real-life job involves dealing with bureaucracy, and I'm not exactly delighted to be confronted with more of the stuff in gamebooks (with some exceptions for parody and humour, but this looks more like an opportunity to unnecessarily make things more difficult for myself). Hoping that the gamebook will at least summarise the content of the form rather than make me wade through the same mounds of legalese with which my character is confronted, I check what I'm actually committing myself to before formally agreeing to it.

No hidden surprises (and, it appears, no consequences for spending time reading it, so this would appear to be just more section number padding), but I do now know the punishment I can expect if I fail to complete the job. Though, given the nature of gamebooks, if I do fail, I'll probably be too dead to care about the fine and/or prison sentence.

I leave the fort and, after making a big deal about noting down which pass is to be used in which situation, the book just automatically has me show the correct one on my way out. All right, so a 'use the wrong pass and get penalised for your idiocy' option would have been tiresome, but stressing the importance of these details and then having them not matter isn't much of an improvement.

Proceeding to my hotel, I stash my valuables in the safe and turn in for the night. Before I can drop off, someone knocks on my door, claiming to be room service. Just in case this is a simple error (or a pleasant surprise arranged by friends - yeah, right), I try calling reception to ask about this, and am told that they know nothing about it. Whoever is outside knocks again and asks if I'm in there, addressing me rather more informally than I'd expect a hotel employee to speak to a guest.

I decide to risk taking a look through the spy hole in the door, but it has been blocked. Again my unsolicited visitor tries to ascertain if I'm present and I get redirected back to the list of possible responses. So do I let them know I'm here (seems unwise), open the door (even more inadvisable) or just wait? It would help to know if that's a 'prepare to confront an attacker'-style wait or more of a 'gormlessly sit around and let the stranger have the initiative' wait, but that does seem the least poor of the remaining options.

Oh, I get to determine the nature of my waiting, and it's all reasonably proactive stuff. Not sure how I can choose to 'have a brilliant idea', but I'm intrigued enough to see what that entails. A 50-50 die roll, as it turns out, and the number I roll leads to a blanket-based ambush that enables me to subdue the two thugs who burst into the room with ease. I search them, finding that each carries a single playing card - the eight of spades - and a pamphlet implying revolutionary tendencies.

Pocketing the cards, I call hotel security, and encounter more section number padding in the form of a superfluous Prestige roll (I checked both outcomes because the positive consequences of failing made me wonder if the book was actually penalising success, but it turns out that more or less the same thing happens either way. Disregard the underlined words in the following sentence if you want to know what difference a successful roll would have made.) After I fail to convince the hotel detective that the two men tried to attack me, he calls the police to have them figure out what really happened, but then my would-be assailants trip him up and attempt to flee, so I intercept them, the thugs are taken into custody, and I get another boost to my Prestige for my handling of the incident.

The rest of my night's rest is undisturbed, and in the morning I put my armour on, breakfast on scrambled algae, retrieve the package and my money from the safe, and drive off. Now the text sees fit to tell me that the place to which I'm delivering the package is owned by a friend, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again. At least it doesn't delay as long in letting me know that a car is shadowing me. Given that the 'wait' option in the hotel room showed that the writers are crediting my character with a degree of competence, I decide not to take any action just yet: best not to provoke anything before I have a better understanding of what's afoot.

In the early afternoon I stop at a diner for lunch, and my meal is interrupted by the sounds of an explosion and my car alarm. Hoping that the diner staff will contact the police, I promptly hurry out to get a better idea of what's up, and catch sight of a trio of rogues running away from my car. They pile into the vehicle I'd noticed trailing me earlier and drive off, and for the first time I notice that they have no license plate, just an anarchy symbol on the bumper.

My car has sustained damage from the attempted forced entry, but the anarchists didn't manage to steal anything. Reflecting that my career as an automotive duellist probably means I don't get much of a no-claims bonus anyway, I resume my travels.

A while later I catch sight of a young woman hitch-hiking, holding up a sign that reads 'Home to mother'. Well, that's not remotely suspicious. However, while turning pages to get from one section to the next, I've seen more than one picture of her, which suggests that she's more plot-significant than just bait for an ambush, so I stop for a word. She says she's heading for Boston, which is a short distance past where I'm headed, so I offer to take her as far as I'm going, and she seems happy with that.

The text then has me ask where she's headed, which leads me to suspect that this is where a 'decide against picking her up but get railroaded into doing so anyway' path rejoins the route I'm taking. She introduces herself as Kathy, and we make small talk until a car approaches from behind and starts machine-gunning my car. Kathy offers to drop some grenades, and I advise her to save them for an emergency. Time to start fighting back.

John at Gamebook Odyssey has complained about the combat in these books, and I can see why. This is a gunfight between two speeding cars, and here's a round-by-round account of how it plays out:
I fire my machine-guns and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit. My opponent fires his machine-gun and hits me.
I fire my machine-guns, and both hit, one of them damaging a tyre. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and hits me.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit. My opponent almost loses control of his vehicle, and cannot retaliate.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit, slightly damaging my enemy's gun. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit. My opponent almost loses control of his vehicle, and cannot retaliate.
I fire my machine-guns, and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns, and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and misses.
I fire my machine-guns, and one of them scores a hit, slightly damaging my enemy's armour. My opponent almost loses control of his vehicle, and cannot retaliate.
I fire my machine-guns, and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and hits me.
I fire my machine-guns, and miss. My opponent fires his machine-gun and hits me, damaging a tyre. 
I fire my machine-guns, and both hit, wrecking my opponent's vehicle.
And if you find reading that dull, I can assure you that playing through it was a lot more so.

The pursuing car skids to a halt, and by the time I've turned my car round, somebody is torching the wreck, which explodes. The debris scattered by the car's destruction includes a wooden box, which I investigate. It contains machine-gun ammo, which could come in handy if this book's inventory management system actually acknowledged how much ammunition I was carrying when I started, and a load of pro-anarchist leaflets, which I take to show to the authorities. The leaflets appear to trouble Kathy, but she doesn't say anything.

I'd been hoping to finish this book one way or another before the end of the month, but after that tedious fight I need to take a break, as my motivation to play on is in a similar state to the car I just fought. Still, this seems like a reasonable point at which to pause the narrative, so I'll post what I've written so far, and resume play when I'm less fed up with the book.

A Fortress Deep and Mighty

The mini-adventure in issue 14 of Fighting Fantazine used a system other than Fighting Fantasy, so I'm skipping that one for now and moving on to issue 15 and Brett Schofield's Lords of Stone. This is the first of the Fantazine mini-adventures on which I worked as a playtester, so I've played it a lot more than any previous mini-adventure (apart from the one I wrote).

Judging by the playability (or lack thereof) of certain published gamebooks, I think it not unreasonable to say that my playtesting technique is more thorough than some. It has three main phases:

1. Play the adventure with a randomly-generated character, marking all options not taken.
2. Repeatedly replay the adventure (continuing to mark options not taken, and removing markers from options when I do try them) until I win.
   Once I have at least a rough idea of the stat requirements, I'm likely to 'save' and reuse the first character I roll up who appears to meet those requirements, to cut down on unnecessary repetition. The priority here is to confirm that the adventure can be beaten using an achievable character.
3. Continue replaying the adventure until I have gone through every single option. Broken links can occur at any stage of an adventure, and checking each transition is the only way to be certain of finding however many there may be. Not that my finding and reporting them is any guarantee that they'll be fixed before the 'zine is published, but I do at least try.

Anyway, the point is that a little over eight years ago I played Lords a lot. It's a fairly generic dungeon-crawl, in which the reader plays a seasoned adventurer who has assisted the Dwarfs of Stonebridge in the past (and thus could be a veteran of more than one FF book - not that the third of those is likely to produce any veterans) and, consequently, gets called in by King Gillibran to deal with a new peril. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

This time the bad guy is Mor Orthor, a Dark Elf who has established a base in an old mine, and is experimenting with Elementals, presumably with the aim of raising an army and laying waste to the region. While Gillibran starts out by saying he needs to ask for my assistance again, by the end of the Background he's just ordering me to get rid of Orthor, his cultists, Elementals, and whatever other hostile creatures or entities might be in the mine. I'm beginning to wish that his hammer had stayed lost.

As I recall, on my very first attempt my character ended up locked into a cell and left to starve. Over the course of a few months I played the mini-adventure dozens more times. Played it, mapped it (sort of - it is not a cartographer-friendly dungeon crawl), won it, played it still more until I'd followed just about every conceivable route through it (including trying out all the Instant Deaths) and completed and sent off my list of corrections and other suggestions. After that I didn't play Lords again until it came up in last year's Fantazine forum challenge, and my low-Skilled character died in a fight against a trio of Dark Elves. Well, a pair by the end, but killing one opponent wasn't enough to save him.

This time round my character has:

Skill 8
Stamina 21

Luck 9

Not the best of stats, but if I'm careful and lucky I might survive.

I shall be using my map of the setting as I play Lords here, because there are some areas that contain nothing but penalties, and I'm not keen to revisit them. To be honest, I'm not that keen on revisiting anything in this adventure, as I'm not particularly enthusiastic about generic dungeon crawls, but I'm not going to condemn Lords because of its setting. Why have a go at it over a matter of personal taste, when there are so many non-subjective reasons to haul it over the coals?

In addition to the usual provisions and potion, I get to take some Elemental Runestones with me. These are magical items that can be used to deal with element-based threats and obstacles. Each is associated with one of the classical elements, and is effective against one other element: water overcomes fire, fire destroys earth, earth beats air, and air counters water. A Dwarf gives half a dozen of them to me, and somehow I get to choose the type of each, even though my character had no input into what the Dwarf handed over. I'll go with two fire, two air, and one each of the others.

Oh, and it's not clear whether Gillibran arranged for me to receive the Runestones, or if the Dwarf who handed them over thought something along the lines of, "What, the King's not even loaning our would-be saviour his precious magic hammer? Well, if old Swill-for-Brains isn't going to provide some assistance, I'd better do so myself."

Anyway, getting to the mines is apparently a bit of a struggle, though not sufficiently so for me to have any encounters, incur damage, roll dice, or indeed do anything other than read that it is an arduous journey. Along the way I see signs of the destruction wrought by Orthor's Elementals. I'd go into more detail, but the author didn't, so your guess is as good as mine. Burned-out farmsteads? Roads blocked by landslides? Blown-down trees with drowned Dwarfs clinging to the upper branches? Whatever: this adventure is all about the subterranean shenanigans.

I enter the mine and head along a tunnel, before long reaching a wooden door set into the left-hand wall. Opening it, I find a room with blood on one wall and bones on the floor. Having only recently played Mine of Torments makes it more noticeable that this place isn't actually that much like a mine. Maybe the Dark Elves added the door so that one of them could get up to whatever unspeakable rites he wanted to practise here in privacy, but still, a room? Not a chamber, a cavern, a cave - you know, the kind of larger space you actually get in a mine that's been used by miners for mining? In any case, I search it, and find a length of rope before returning to the passage.

Continuing on my way, I reach a junction. On the floor is a wooden box, inscribed with violent images, with a green gem set into the lid. Unable to remember what it contains, I open it, and oh, for goodness sake, I corrected that typo, and it's still there in the published version out streams a cloud of Stamina-sapping gas. To get away from it, I run to the right - yes, this is the kind of adventure that goes with subjective directions rather than anything compass-based.

Ignoring a boarded-up door in the right wall, I proceed to another junction. Though it is obvious that the passage leading left has caved in, I head that way, finding some comparatively fresh Dark Elf corpses partially buried in the rubble. The bodies have already been looted, but a roll of parchment remains clutched in the hand of one cadaver. Removing it, I find it to be a basic guide to translating some unfamiliar script into language I can read.

Turning around and entering the non-blocked tunnel, I eventually round a corner and find a dead Dwarf with a couple of obviously badly broken limbs. Close by is a war-hammer, and around his neck hangs a gold medallion. Though aware that there must be a reason why this corpse hasn't been robbed, I check out the Dwarf's possessions all the same. The hammer is a straightforward weapon, which I can take with me, though I must leave my sword behind to do so because... just because.

Taking the medallion summons a Stone Golem, which attacks me. As I'm using the hammer, I do additional damage, whereas the sword would do reduced damage. Though my Skill is higher than the Golem's, lousy rolls cause me to lose more Attack Rounds than I win, and if not for the extra damage done by the hammer, I doubt that I'd have survived to the end of the fight.

To add insult to injury, the rules only permit me to eat Provisions when the text says I can, or when I'm in an unoccupied room. Quite apart from the question of whether or not a room can be considered 'unoccupied' if I'm in it, the implied ban on eating while in tunnels, passageways, corridors and the like makes no sense, and was not in the text I was sent to proofread, or I'd have ranted about it to the author and editor before publication in the interests of making the mini-adventure less broken. Oh, and guess how many times the text explicitly says you can eat a meal. Out of 200 sections, of which around 170 are neither combats nor Instant Deaths, the number in which 'the options allow' you to consume Provisions is zero.

So, do I reinterpret the rules in a manner that makes the adventure less of a shambles, or do I potentially doom my character by accepting these absurd limitations and not healing until I'm next in a room that contains no living beings other than myself? Well, everyone else who's played the published version was stuck with the preposterous restrictions, so I'll endure them as well, and if that means I die in the next fight, at least I'll have a valid reason to stop playing.

I'm not going to deliberately get myself killed, though, so I ignore the next boarded-up door I pass, and the later door with a spider nailed to it. A little further on, the tunnel 'bends left and then straight', whatever that's supposed to mean. It curves to the left and then straightens out? It curves to the left and then winds back to continue in the same direction I was heading? This is why we can't have nice maps!

Whichever way I'm now going, there's a side passage to the right, which I investigate. It leads to another boarded-up door, but this time I remove the boards. The cave beyond contains only stalactites and a bottle I know better than to open, but it's somewhere I can eat a portion of Provisions... Unless I go for a really strict interpretation of that stupid rule, and have to go without because this is a cave rather than a room... No, a 'for research purposes only' check of the section for opening the bottle reveals that it refers to the cave as a room, so it's officially a room, so I'm eating, so there!

Back outside the room I notice a concealed door in one of the walls, and open it to reveal a concealed passage. Investigating, I follow it as it twists and turns on its way to an iron door with a misshapen and probably non-human skull mounted above it. Behind the door is a large cavern, split in two by a chasm crossed by a narrow stone bridge. On the far side I see a crystal chest and a stone humanoid.

As I have a rope, I could try to lasso the chest, but I remember from playtesting that that wouldn't work and could get me killed, so I step onto the bridge instead. The Boulder Beast animates, and as its Skill is equal to mine, and there is some risk of my being knocked off the bridge and to my death, I use a Runestone of Fire to weaken my stony foe. Finishing it off in combat is easy enough after that.

The chest turns out to be an illusion, which infuriates my character to an inappropriate degree, especially as it was concealing a key, so it's not as if that fight was for nothing. And if a cave is a room, I don't see why a cavern shouldn't also be a room, so I have another meal.

Returning to the 'main' passage, I continue along it, and soon see another door. It leads to the room where a previous character got killed by Dark Elves, so on this occasion I shall pass it by. Further along, the passage splits again, and there's a wooden chest on the ground just before the junction. The key I recently acquired fits the lock, so I am able to open it without triggering any traps. Inside are a ring, an amulet, and a shield. I take the amulet, thereby discovering it to be a Charm of Learning, and the shield, which bears the image of a griffon (even though FF more commonly spells it 'griffin') and gives me a decent Attack Strength bonus. I forget what the ring does, but I'm pretty sure it's nothing good.

Heading left, I discover that my character is unfeasibly stupid. Well, the text doesn't say that quite so blatantly, but it's the only explanation for what does happen. Protruding from the ground are a load of sharp stalagmites, and in the ceiling directly above them is the mouth of a shaft. And rather than realising that this must be the business end of a rather nasty trap, I wonder what the stalagmites are there for. Though, given the level of cluelessness required for such bafflement, I imagine my thought processes run more along the lines of "What... pointy... rock... things... do?"

Somehow managing to get past the stalagmites without losing an eye, I reach another door, and open it. Beyond is a small chamber with symbols painted on the wall (possibly in blood). And this is another instance of the error that bugged me in Lone Wolf, where 'or' needs to be taken as 'and/or' for the text to make sense: having the Charm of Learning in addition to the Translator scroll should make it that bit easier to decipher the symbols, but a strict reading of what's written here indicates that having both leaves me as clueless as having neither.

Interpreting the words in a way that makes sense, I use one or both data sources to translate the symbols, thereby discovering how to open a concealed alcove that contains an assortment of items. Most are 'something only a brain-dead Orc would consider treasure' (so I presume my character finds them too intellectual to bother with), but there are a few things that might be worth taking.

I shall leave the leather boots: having been made from the hide of a Snattacat, they would improve my agility, thereby increasing the difficulty of any Skill rolls I make while wearing them. Yes, increasing: I queried this in my playtester's notes, and the text remains unchanged, so I must conclude that in Lords of Stone being agile is regarded as a liability when determining how well a jump goes. Why bother to query the logic of that when the boots' effect is founded on the premise that items made from the skin of an animal most notable for its ability to turn invisible will naturally enhance the agility of their wearer?

So, no boots. But I will take the small bottle, which turns out to contain a healing salve, and the tattered cloak, which can be wrapped around one arm as a crude and short-lived shield. While learning about the capabilities of these items, I also see that the text calls the chamber a room, so I have another meal and almost get back to full Stamina.

Returning to the passage (now described as a corridor), I find that it ends in another door. I shan't bother going through, because there's no longer any pressing need to eat, and because the trap it contains would prompt another rant and I'm fed up of getting annoyed at this mini-adventure. So I return to the junction and take the passage opposite. This bends to the right, and somehow leads to a flight of stairs which terminates at the top of the shaft above the stalagmites. Well, I suppose if it were a big enough curve, that could sort of make sense, but the text says it 'soon' reaches the steps, so it would have to be something like this:

Not completely impossible, but still a headache for mapping.

On the floor a scrap of paper sticks out from under a stone. I take a look at it, finding the message, 'The key is in the wall.' And while you or I might be prompted to muse on questions such as 'The key to what?' or 'Which wall?', my cretin of a character has 'no idea what it means'. Frankly, I'm amazed he still remembers to draw breath from time to time.

Anyway, to proceed I must jump across the shaft mouth, and I make it to the other side without my character gaining a painful understanding of what the stalagmites can do to any adventurer 'agile' enough to fall down the shaft. Stairs lead down, and before long I pass the door to the cell in which my first attempt at this adventure ended.

Ignoring the door, I proceed to another junction. A cold breeze blows from the right, so I head left. After a short while I see a large stone door to my right. The effort of opening it costs a Stamina point, so it's now worth using a dose of that salve to restore myself to full health.

In the chamber beyond, I see a metal grille in the floor, coated in green slime, and in one corner of the room is a skeleton. The skeleton has a helmet on its head, a slimy sword in one hand, and a bow in the other. I don't have any arrows, and it's not advisable to touch any slime, so the only course of action that might be worthwhile is to check out the helmet. No, that just causes the skeleton to come to life and attack me, and in spite of the Skill advantage conferred by the shield, the dice hate me today, so I still take a couple of wounds. Still, this is a room, so once the skeleton is no longer active, I can eat and restore what Stamina I lost.

Further along the passage is another door. Moans sound from behind it, and I think I've pushed my luck more than enough as it is, so I don't open it. Soon after that, the passage ends at a cave-in. On the ground is a skull, the top of which has been cut in order to create a lid. Remembering from my playtesting days that some malicious prankster has used a venomous snake to turn the skull into a kind of semi-lethal jack-in-the-box, I leave it alone and head back to the junction.

The cold I noticed before intensifies as I head into it, and the passage becomes icy and snowy. That cloak helps protect me from the chill, and after a little while the temperature returns to normal.

Before long the tunnel terminates in a wooden door. The sound of whimpering comes from behind it, and the text clumsily railroads me into opening it. All right, so I know that the left turn at the previous junction leads to a dead end, but anyone who went right straight off would have no idea of that, and if they had a cloak, the cold area would be no deterrent, so 'no choice but to enter' is just an authorial 'you will go this way because I say so'.

The room beyond is occupied by an emaciated Dwarf who screams a lot. He turns out to be a 'fellow Stonebridge Dwarf' (at times the text makes out that my character is a Dwarf, and in other places it implies that I'm human, and nobody to whom I mentioned this after playtesting appears to have thought that there was any need to clarify the issue, so make of the contradictions what you will).

The Dwarf explains that he was captured by the Dark Elves some weeks ago, and escaped more recently, since when he's been keeping a low profile down here, evidently failing to grasp that keeping quiet involves not whimpering loudly enough to be audible from the other side of a door. Or screaming.

I promise to help him out of the mines as soon as I've dealt with Mor Orthor, and a passing Cave Manticore takes that as a cue to fire a stone spine from its tail into his back, killing him on the spot. The Manticore fires more spines at me, but I use the shield to protect myself and there's another flipping typo that I corrected to no avail. As the brute advances on me, I decide that now might be a good time to use that cloak as a shield. It helps a little, but the vindictiveness of the dice ensures that I still take a fair bit of damage during the battle.

Back when the Dwarf first screamed at me, this chamber was referred to as a room, so I eat and get back some of the Stamina I lost in the fight before going on my way. On the Dwarf's body I find a potion that will heal a little Stamina, and I save it for closer to the endgame.

A passage leads onwards, turning left after a while. A wooden barrel stands in the corner, and I lose a point of Stamina doing something that turns out to be futile. I could spend paragraphs ranting about all the corrections that were ignored here, but what's the point?

Continuing on my way, I reach a side turning. Growls emanate from it, but I go that way anyway. A Fog Elemental attacks, and I could use a Runestone to weaken it, but it's not exactly a threatening opponent even at full health, so I don't bother. And the dice are still in a mood, so I take almost as much damage as I did fighting the Manticore.

Further along the corridor, there's a cobweb-covered door set into one wall, behind which I could face a pointless test or take an unnecessary risk in order to get a bonus that'd leave me no better off than I already am. The passage turns right a little later, and I notice a hole in the wall. Reaching into it, I find another key, its end in the shape of a horned bat. Around the corner the passage slopes down and becomes flooded. Mandatory use of a Runestone of Air dries out all but a puddle.

Eventually I reach a spiked metal door, embossed with the image of a horned bat. After downing that potion and using the rest of the salve, I use the key I recently found, which lets me through into Mor Orthor's study. The Dark Elf is perusing a bookshelf, and after issuing a threat that shows him to be no Balthus Dire, he summons a Water Elemental to attack me. Or rather, he creates the illusion of one, but the Charm of Learning enables me to discern that it's not real.

I throw the medallion I found on the first dead Dwarf to Orthor, and he puts it on because why should my character be the only idiot in the room? The Golem appears and attacks him, and while he does destroy it, he takes a fair bit of damage and loses some Skill in the process.

Wanting to finish this, I charge in to fight, and Orthor fires a bolt of lightning, which is nullified by my Runestone of Earth. We then trade blows, and as I now have a two point advantage Skill-wise and only need to hit him once to bring his Stamina below the threshold necessary to progress to the next stage of the confrontation, the dice dig in their heels and allow him to wound me three times before I narrowly win a round of combat.

Orthor vanishes through a wall. A cursory examination of the wall reveals a button, and when I push it, I find myself in a vast cavern. This, like the one where I fought the Boulder Beast, is riven by a deep chasm with a bridge across it, but the bridge here is in a bad shape, and starts to crumble as I hurry across it. A Skill roll determines whether or not I reach the far side, and if I were wearing those boots I wouldn't have made it.

At last I catch up to Orthor, who is performing a mystical rite at an underground temple. This allows him to transform into a fusion of the four primary types of Elemental, but I am able to weaken him with the last few of my Runestones. The dice have become complacent, and I win the first two rounds of the fight, using Luck to increase damage both times. At this point one more blow will kill Orthor, but the dice realise how close I am to victory, and allow him to win another four rounds and draw at least one before I finally get to deliver a killing blow. He has randomly determined special attacks that kick in whenever he wins a round, but all they amount to in this fight is a small amount of extra damage, and my being unable to harm him during a round that I didn't win anyway.

Mission accomplished, I return to Stonebridge. Pay no attention to the fact that I was on the wrong side of a seemingly bottomless chasm that no longer had a bridge across it. Gillibran buys me a pint of beer and says that further rewards will be forthcoming. Which probably means fresh opportunities to get killed, but never mind. I've won, so I shan't have to play the adventure again for this blog, and Lords has already come up in this year's challenge at the Fantazine forum, so it's not likely to come up on my 'to play' list again any time soon. All right, it's by no means the worst Fantazine mini-adventure, but right now another seven years without going back to it looks to me like a good start.

The Choice Between a Single Line and Thin Line and a Wrinkled Thing and...

So, having now replayed everything that precedes Lone Wolf book 11, The Prisoners of Time, I have a character who's better equipped, has slightly superior stats, and is currently in less than ideal health. In the gap between adventures I finish assimilating the power contained within the Lorestone of Luomi, gaining the Discipline of Pathsmanship and completing another Lore-circle, which adds another point to my Combat Skill, and two to my starting Endurance.

I'm not sure why getting the Lorestone didn't restore any Endurance, given that the ones in books 7-9 did, and book 10 states that I am filled with 'renewed strength' when the Lorestone falls into my hands. The Mongoose edit doesn't help: though it adds 'and vigour' to that, there's still no mention of any restoration of attributes, so I remain at less than half health even as an unavoidable Endurance loss in the very first section of the next book approaches.

Assuming I don't die before I get to do anything, I'll mostly follow the same path I did on my first attempt at Prisoners for the blog, and when I deviate from that route it'll be in the same way that I did on my next try - at least, up until the fight with the Chaos-master. Ideally, I won't die this time round, and to aid me in attaining that goal I'll be downing the Alether potion from Kalte rather than eating unrefined berries, for an additional boost to Combat Skill.

In brief, then: I take a lot of damage travelling through the portal, and shelter in the sepulchre. The Yoacor find me and take me to the Beholder. Food restores a little Endurance, but I lose more than that from the combination of the Beholder's mind probe and passage through the Dimension Door. I proceed to the city via as direct a route as possible, and the damage I take from the pawing and poking of its citizens would be enough to kill me if I weren't wearing a leather waistcoat. That would be a more preposterous way of dying than the rubbish one from book 13 that I rant about every so often.

Once I meet Serocca I get an info-dump which takes in enough section transitions to be tedious even when condensed to snarky bullet points by my gamebook manager, and have all my lost Endurance restored. It's about time.

Doomed companion T'uk T'ron takes me further, I get the same vague waffle from the fortune teller as on the last two occasions I played the book, and the ambush at the bridge leaves me on my own for a bit. I meet Ironheart's troops, doing my best to avert the friendly fire incident that they seem so keen on, get yet more exposition from Ironheart himself, and head for the tombs in the company of another redshirt.

When I encounter the helmeted warrior who's trying to take the Lorestones, I attempt to put an arrow through his throat. He tries to dodge, but the bonuses I get for having the Silver Bow and Weaponmastery in Bow help me find a chink in his armour. This being one of the more railroady parts of the book, I merely wound him, so he still grabs the Lorestones, and I have to fight him for them. His stats are lower than on either of the last two times I fought him, and I kill him in the first round of combat, but his winged steed inevitably denies me the opportunity to recover both Lorestones. The one I do get restores me to full Endurance again (not that I'd lost much anyway), reminding me afresh of what I was complaining about in the second paragraph of this post.

In Baylon's Tomb I help myself to the healing wine from the sarcophagus, and before long it's time to fight the Chaos-master again. I use the slightly lower stats from the Mongoose edit, down the potent Alether potion, and find myself in a situation where Psi-surge might just be worth using.

I win, losing just over half my Endurance in the process. On my way to the city from which the helmeted warrior came, I get into a fight with a big grey lizard. It's particularly vulnerable to psychic attacks, but has a Combat Skill so low that I have the best possible Combat Ratio even without using Mindblast or Psi-surge. Even so, it wounds me a few times.

As I plod on through a dead landscape, the mind-numbing dreariness causes me to start to lose my grip on reality. That reminds me of something in real life... oh, yes, it's a bit like reading this book. Eventually I encounter a trio of bargain basement Ringwraiths, who launch a psychic attack, but my Psi-screen not only blocks it but uses some of the energy from it to reinforce my mental defences. Sensing this, the phantasmal riders urge their steeds closer to me, and a new kind of psychic combat takes place, conducted using much the same rules as a physical fight. Most of the bonuses I get to apply in normal battles don't apply here, but the Mongoose text says that I can still use the one provided by the Silver Helmet I wear (the tinfoil hat-wearers of the world might take this as an endorsement of their views). I also get to add Combat Skill for possessing Disciplines above and beyond the base three, and for having the ring I bought in book 8.

I win the fight, and I'm not sure if I lost any Endurance during it, as the text doesn't specify whether or not the cost of employing Psi-surge during a standard combat also applies here. Assuming the worst, I deduct an appropriate amount.

The wind brings the sound of a bell to my ears, and I am irresistibly drawn to a golden light. A shining globe hangs above a stone tower, and through a portal in its side I see a tunnel leading to a distant light. One of the Lore-circles I've completed enables me to heal extra Endurance. A load of mystical mumbo-jumbo follows, made more bearable by the fact that every separate section of this cosmic twaddle allows me to regain a point of Endurance. I see visions of everyone and everything that has shaped my destiny (I wonder if that includes an unimpressed reader and a random number generator, because they've been doing a lot of the heavy lifting of late), and get a pep talk from Lone Wolf's god.

Then I find myself at the bottom of a sheer cliff, at the top of which is the city where the Lorestone I seek now resides. Close by is a sewage outlet, which could be an easier way in than the straight climb, especially as Nexus should protect me from mephitic vapours. Not that they're actually an issue here, as it turns out. A giant sewer snake, on the other hand...

I kill it, taking a little damage, and continue my ascent. Eventually I emerge onto the streets of Haagadar. The place stinks of salt and sulphur, and the locals use damp pads on their faces to block out the stench. Tethered outside a temple I see the bird that transported the helmeted warrior, and I sense that the Lorestone is now inside the temple. There only appears to be one door leading into the building, and that is guarded. A vent on the roof could provide another way in, but I have Invisibility, so I opt to cover my face (getting flashbacks to 2020) and try to bluff my way past the guards.

The guards are convinced by my imposture, and assume that I'm in trouble - potentially a lethal amount. Amused, they let me past, and I proceed along a curved corridor past numerous doors with writhing serpents painted on them (does that remind you of anything?). It leads to a staircase, which ascends to a balcony overlooking a hall. This hall contains alchemical paraphernalia and the Shadow Gate that could take me home. By now Healing has made good a fair bit of the damage I'd sustained, and I use the Oede herb I've been toting around to restore me to full health in anticipation of the imminent boss fight.

A group of six people in vaguely familiar clothing approaches. I hide behind the table of alchemical gubbins and study the sextet until I twig what I've recognised: their clothes are in styles popular back in my homeland. This enables me to identify the people: a selection of Sommerlund's Most Wanted, all of whom were exiled via the Shadow Gate. Brief descriptions of their crimes are provided, but as I've had nothing to do with five of them before now, the accompanying illustration has more impact, so they come across as: fat villain, villain with eyepatch, villainess, villain with goatee, villain with long beard, and Vonotar the Traitor. The latter gloats about being able to take his revenge, and sets the others on me mob-handed.

I down a handful of Alether berries and, as this scurvy bunch has no immunity to Mindblast, use that (but not Psi-surge, in view of the Endurance cost) to give myself a decent edge in the fight. It takes me six rounds of combat to kill the lot, and I take less damage than I did against the Chaos-master. If I'd used Psi-surge, the fight would have been a bit quicker, but I'd have lost almost twice as much Endurance, so I reckon I made the right choice there.

Vonotar makes a move towards the Shadow Gate, opening a lead box he carries, which contains the Lorestone. I charge at him, and he blasts me with a bolt of energy from a magical ring, doing a not insignificant amount of damage. He fires again, but this time I dodge, and I attack before he can try a third time. I shan't be using Psi-surge in this fight, either, because it doesn't affect him. Two blows with the Sommerswerd suffice to finish him off, though, and he inflicts no wounds on me during the fight, which is a good thing, because the last Lorestone is another 'no Endurance restoration for you, loser' one, and I remember from the 1990s that the next book starts with another Shadow Gate-induced Endurance loss.

Anyway, I take the Lorestone and proceed through the Shadow Gate, heading for home. This victory doesn't so much give me (the reader) a sense of triumph as the kind of relief you feel when the car alarm that's been going off for the past 20-odd minutes finally shuts up.

And that's that book done with, mostly. I do still have the mini-adventure from the Mongoose edition to play through, but I think it unlikely that that will be anywhere near as dismal a slog as Prisoners turned out to be, and in any case, it'll be a while before I get to that one. Probably not this year, unless I pick up the pace of my posts, and there's enough going on elsewhere in my life (and little enough enthusiasm regarding ploughing on through the series) that that's not massively likely.

The Wolves Are Running

Back to Magnamund I go, and, as I said the last time I got a Lone Wolf killed, I'm going right back to the start to get a character who has better prospects of surviving the fight that's been causing me trouble in book 11. A bit extreme, but I'm still able to derive enjoyment from some of the earlier adventures in the series, while leaping straight back into The Prisoners of Time now holds less appeal than doing household chores or punching myself in the face, so replaying the less onerous books first might just help me get through the ordeal that is the penultimate Magnakai adventure. Besides, it gives me the opportunity to act upon advice provided in comments on a couple of past playthroughs.

As I'm going back to the beginning, I've taken the opportunity to make some refinements to the Lone Wolf player in my gamebook manager, most significantly differentiating injuries sustained in battle from non-combat Endurance loss, so Healing will no longer affect damage that, by the rules, it cannot make good. No more ambiguity about whether or not I won the tougher fights fair and square.

The first new Lone Wolf I created only had 13 Combat Skill, so I contrived for him to get entangled in foliage and speared through the heart by a Giak. Harsh, but in a world where a starting CS of 16 won't cut the mustard, he was always doomed.

His replacement showed a little more promise, with:
Combat Skill 17
Endurance 28
Might not suffice, but it's close enough to give him a fairer chance. His randomly determined proficiency in Weaponskill is Spear, which should at least come in handy for the hardest fight in the second book.

I'm not going to go into detail about his early adventures. For the most part they run along similar lines to those of his more doomed predecessors, so I'll just link to my accounts of them and mention any noteworthy differences below. For the most part I shan't be comparing editions, either, because that would just make the replaying take longer, and with 10 books and a mini-adventure to redo, I already have plenty to be getting on with.

In Flight from the Dark I assist Banedon the magician by throwing a rock at a Giak that was sneaking up on him, get given some fruit by a hermit in a tree house, and have my arm gashed by a Kraan while heading for cover - which does at least provide an opportunity to test my modifications to the gamebook manager. Beneath the Graveyard of the Ancients I have a nice sit-down, as a result of which the Winged Serpent gives me a key instead of attacking me. The wound from the Kraan persists on my digital Action Chart until I reach the end of the book and get to heal up, which is what was supposed to happen, so this is one of the rare occasions while playing a gamebook when being injured (in-game) could be considered a positive.

I'm sticking with the 'institute save points between books' policy, so in the event of this character's falling victim to any of the unavoidable '10% chance of Instant Death' moments in three of the next four books (or experiencing some other kind of fatality), he will respawn back at the start of the book in which he died. I'm no longer enough of a glutton for punishment to go all the way back to the beginning every single time I fail.

Moving on to Fire on the Water, after the shipboard fire I eat with the Captain rather than the crew. Portions are tiny because so much was destroyed in the fire. After the meal we play a chess-like game named Samor, with a side bet. Later in the series Lone Wolf becomes something of a hustler, but this early in his career, chance determines the outcome (though Sixth Sense does help). I win even before the bonus for having that Discipline. The rest of the journey to Ragadorn passes as before, but on the coach out of the city my fellow passengers and I have to pay 'exit tax' to some of the Overlord's tame thugs.

The next difference after that is that I respond to the calls for help that I hear between Gorn Cove and Port Bax, consequently getting into a fight with an undead Helghast and claiming the magic spear that had almost killed it before I intervened. I'm not going to have many chances to use my Weaponskill, so I might as well take the opportunity while I can. On the next leg of the journey, the attack by a sextet of Helghast doesn't include the 1 in 10 chance of Instant Death, though my companions are as doomed as ever. When we reach the Tarnalin tunnel I retain my spear, ignore the Noodnics, and kill the ambushing Helghast without even having to fight it. I'm more proactive during the battle with the death-hulks, getting to confront but not harm Vonotar the Traitor aboard his flagship, and never encountering the reanimated corpses of my erstwhile shipmates.

On my journey through The Caverns of Kalte, I manage to open the vial of poison without breaking it, and then decide not to take it with me, as the Barbarians I might otherwise end up using it on are probably only opposing me through sorcerous compulsion, so it'd be less destructive to the local population if I use the sleeping draught that's in one of the other vials and get rid of the evil magician who's taken charge of the region. The climactic fight against the undead gribbly takes longer than it did in the playthrough linked to above, but not so long as to cause me to fail the book.

After I succeeded at The Chasm of Doom, I said I'd make sure to have Camouflage if I ever replayed it. Even with the bonus it gives when I try to evade the drunken guards, I still get the less favourable outcome, but that's an easy fight anyway. During the battle at Ruanon I enter a watchtower, use Healing to enable a wounded archer to keep fighting, and fight a Vassagonian Captain who rides a giant bird and tries to harm me with a psychic attack (failing because I have Mindshield). He drops an Onyx Medallion, which I risk taking, and later, on my way to the Maakengorge, I use it to deal with a Vassagonian search party I encounter, brandishing it as I impersonate a superior officer, reprimanding them for their scruffiness, and sending them away into the forest. This means I have no need to hide in the crop field, so the main reason I chose Camouflage for this book doesn't come into play.

Incidentally, now that I'm playing by a stricter interpretation of the rules governing Healing, this book becomes a bit tougher. While I never came seriously close to death, I did spend a fair amount of the battle at Ruanon with a lower Endurance than I was entirely comfortable with. The book also highlighted just how arbitrary the distinction between combat damage and non-combat damage can be - when a Vassagonian soldier pretends to be dead and then launches a surprise attack on me, Healing can't do anything about the wound he inflicts in the ambush, but as soon as I draw a weapon and start to fight back, every other injury he causes will be put right by Healing if I stay alive long enough after the fight. How does that make sense?

Oh, and if Lone Wolf is about to enter a region where Hunting cannot be used to procure food, it would be fairer to mention this before or when the option to load up on Meals is given, rather than keeping quiet about it until it's too late to grab anything to compensate for this limitation. All right, so the Laumspur potion that went into the empty backpack slot instead of rations healed more damage than was caused by my being unable to eat, but if I'd had a little warning that one of my Disciplines was about to be nerfed, I might have discarded some ballast to make room for a Meal and saved the potion for a more desperate situation. RIP and all that, but there were times when Joe Dever didn't entirely play fair.

Playing Shadow on the Sand without Mind Over Matter, I have to find a different way to distract the soldiers on the quay. Finding a conveniently abandoned bow and arrow, I manage to smash a bottle on a distant balcony (Weaponskill providing a bonus that makes the difference between success and failure). Alas, the next time my lack of Mind Over Matter comes into play, while I'm being pursued through the Zakhan's palace, the random number generator provides a result too poor for any bonus to compensate, and I wind up fatally riddled with crossbow bolts.

Returning to the save point I set up at the start of the book, I choose Mind Over Matter instead of Mindblast. Once I reach the sewers, I try a different route in the hope of reducing Healing-proof damage, and encounter a Kwaraz, the local equivalent of a sewer-dwelling alligator. Animal Kinship enables me to get the Kwaraz to ignore me, and before long a scream indicates that one of my pursuers ended up satisfying the reptile's appetite. Further on I reach a chamber where the sewage is much deeper, and while I could try to lasso a bit of metal that juts out of a chute that channels filth down here and try to swing across, swimming seems like a good way to contract the ailment that will enable me to avoid capture, so I try that instead, and get the desired outcome.

Climbing a different chimney so as to avoid the nest of spiders, I find myself at the mercy of the random number generator again, the penalty for having an infected arm not quite compensated for by the bonus for having Hunting. Still, I get a middling outcome, which means losing some Endurance, but not as much as if I'd got that number for the damage inflicted by spider bites in the other chimney.

A few minor variations in tactics once I'm again being chased through the palace make little difference, but attacking the guard I encounter on the stairs rather than trying to evade him enables me to dodge a little Healing-proof damage and chuck him off a balcony, which is a distinct improvement. It also gives me access to a bridge leading to a tower. I cross it and ascend, Drakkar warriors not far behind.

That's not the tower with the Itikar pens at the top. All there is up there is a big drum, used to send messages to other towers. But the drum is also good for rolling down stairs to crush pursuers, and the rope I opted not to use in the sewers enables me to descend to the palace gardens. Well, descend some of the way, and then a Drakkar makes it to the top of the tower and cuts the rope. Randomness determines that I land in a pool of water and take no damage, and from the garden I can get to the Itikar pens without encountering that check for Mind Over Matter that contributed to my death a few paragraphs ago.

After that, things largely go as they did on my previous successful attempt at the book. Except that, rather than narrowly surviving the fight against Darklord Haakon, I absolutely annihilate him. Not as tense a climax, but I'm not complaining.

Discussion at some point after my playthrough of The Kingdoms of Terror suggests that it was an error rather than a deliberate decision that, while the rules say Special Items can be carried across from preceding books, no mention is made of retaining Backpack Items. Given that a Potion I acquired in Kalte is guaranteed to improve my chances of surviving the toughest fight in book 11, and that it had been sitting around in a sealed room for 'many thousands of years' before I claimed it, making it unlikely that the passage of time since I found the bottle could have caused its contents to lose their effectiveness, I will definitely be hanging on to that.

Once I've temporarily saved Cyrilus' life and acquired him as a travelling companion, I decide to enter the archery contest that's taking place in a village we pass. Cyrilus declines to watch because he needs to dye his shirt red (well, that's not the reason he gives, but we know where this is going).

The first round involves firing three arrows at a target with rings numbered 0-9. A score of 8 or more is required to qualify for the next round, and thanks to the bonus for having Weaponmastery in bow, I beat that with my first arrow.

Only one other contestant makes it through to the final, which is conducted like a combat, except that damage is deducted from the one-off attribute Target points rather than Endurance, since we're not shooting at each other. On this occasion I consider it worth comparing the Mongoose text with the original, and there are a couple of differences that essentially cancel each other out: the reissue makes it clear that the Combat Skill bonus I get from having a shield does not apply in this contest, but also reduces my opponent's Combat Skill by the same amount as the bonus I don't get to use. Oddly, the bonus I get for wearing a helmet is not similarly negated, and the book says nothing to forbid using Mindblast during the contest, so if I were feeling unsportsmanlike, I could psychically assault the other contestant to improve my chances.

Oh, and the Mongoose artist has chosen to depict Altan, the bowman against whom I am contending, as Aragorn from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, presumably because the text says that he's a ranger.

Thanks to the imbalances in the Combat Results Table, the odds favour my winning even with the 6-point Combat Skill advantage that Altan has as things stand, so I opt not to use Mindblast, and despite getting a roughly even mix of high and low numbers during the contest, I win decisively. The prize is the Silver Bow of Duadon, a weapon which gives a hefty bonus any time randomness determines the outcome of my firing an arrow. Condescendingly, the Mongoose text not only specifies that this bonus is cumulative with the bonus for having Weaponmastery in bow, but also clarifies what the cumulative bonuses add up to, just in case players who had no trouble counting up to 8 or more a few sections back struggle to add 3 and 3.

Returning to where I left Cyrilus and my horse, I find that both are missing. Cyrilus' wooden staff lies on the ground close by, suggesting foul play, and by climbing onto a wagon I can spot that a group of six cavalrymen has stolen my horse and abducted Cyrilus. There's a horse hitched to the wagon, and I choose to seek its owner rather than just steal it, because I'm not a fan of the form of 'social justice' that favours punishing people who had nothing to do with the wrong that was committed. That and the fact that stealing the horse has a randomised outcome with a strong probability of a lethal result.

As it turns out, the horse belongs to Altan. He's not a sore loser, and congratulates me on my win before I can explain the situation. Once I let him know that I need his horse, he indicates his willingness to make a deal, glancing at the Silver Bow as he does. I'm not prepared to trade that, but he's also willing to take money or Special Items. In theory I could fob him off with a couple of bits of completely worthless tat, but I'm pretty sure that by now the diamond I picked up in Kalte and the golden key that unlocked the exit from the Graveyard of the Ancients are, in game terms, of no more use to me than a long-expired coach ticket and pass, so Altan gets some things he'd probably consider valuable in return for the horse, and wishes me well as I set off in pursuit of the horse-thieves and my doomed companion.

The chase goes much as it did after the fight against Roark's sister on my previous attempt, the only differences being that I use my new bow at the first opportunity rather than waiting to be spotted by the rearmost horseman, and the riders don't tell Roark I killed his sister (because this time round she never attacked me). I now know that the incidental damage incurred while fighting the undead summonation cannot be made good by Healing, but I can recover the Endurance by downing a healing potion, thereby freeing up a Backpack slot for one of the handsful of Combat Skill-enhancing Alether Berries I buy soon afterwards.

In Varetta I head down a different street, as there was nothing worthwhile to be gained on the one I previously took. The one I choose this time is full of mercenaries, and when I pause to offer a coin to a beggar-woman with a crying baby, one of them slaps her hand away and calls her a thieving hag. I ask him what he thinks he's doing, and he demonstrates that the woman has been using a hatpin to encourage the baby to cry. She hurriedly absents herself, and the mercenary asks me if I'm looking for work. We chat for a bit, and I gain an introduction to the Captain of his band of mercenaries - the same man I met after a couple of low-lifes tried to rob me on my previous attempt at the book.

After that things transpire much as they did when I last played Kingdoms. I avoid a couple of distractions, and the arrow I fire at a river pirate is on target, sparing me an unchallenging fight, but everything else is as before - including the fact that a door turns out to be the most formidable opponent I fight all book.

During the administrative phase that precedes playing Castle Death (character upgrades for having acquired the first Lorestone, selection of new equipment), I put some Backpack Items into storage – all the Alether and healing potions I’ve acquired, so they aren’t lost when my pack is unavoidably stolen at the end of the adventure, and a map I no longer need because why continue to lug it around when I no longer require it?

Things go much as they did on my previous attempt until I’ve killed the giant snake. Then I take the blanket that belonged to one of its victims, and find the way out of its lair before any eggs hatch. When the Beastmen enter the hall, I risk ambushing them. This doesn’t provide me with any clues about the right code to activate the hidden door in the sarcophagus, but looting the bodies does enable me to replace some of the arrows I lost falling into the snake’s lair.

Avoiding the sarcophagus, as the odds of guessing the correct combination are still low, and I’d like to do some healing before I get sent to the maze, I exit the hall, and soon reach a chamber in which a suspicious-looking beam of red light streams in from a hole in the ceiling. Twin iron doors lead onwards, but I'd have to go through the red light to reach them, and I don't want to risk summoning Roxanne or whatever, so I take the other way onwards. This leads (after an implausible length of time) to a room decorated with fine tapestries, with a small door leading out. Checking the tapestries in case any of them conceal alternative exits, I find that they're woven from gold and silver and decorated with jewels and semi-precious stones, and the text has me pilfer a diamond.

Beyond the door, I wind up gassed into unconsciousness, and face the same show trial as before. I do as before in the maze, because I know that that will enable me to escape, and this time round I have the blanket - not that the Combat Skill bonus it provides makes any difference under the circumstances. Following my escape from the maze, I stick with my previous approach up until I reach Zahda's throne, at which point I destroy the Deathstone before Lord Zahda knows I'm here.

After a failed attempt to use some sort of magic weapon against me, Zahda activates the anti-gravity beam and attempts to flee. I grab the Lorestone (thereby recovering the lost Endurance that Healing couldn't restore) and follow him into the light. Somehow I travel up it more quickly, soon catching up with Zahda, who attacks me with a glowing dagger. Thanks to the Sommerswerd, he doesn't even survive the first round of combat.

Before starting The Jungle of Horrors I get a new Backpack and a replacement Rope (my old one was in the pack that got unavoidably stolen at the end of the previous book), and retrieve a couple of the useful items I put into storage. I'm also temporarily putting the Dagger of Vashna into storage, because of the whole 'from this book onwards there's a limit to how many Special Items you can carry, and the author is going to fill up a fair bit of that carrying capacity with stuff you're not allowed to discard' thing.

In a slight departure from previous procedure, I take Nexus as my new Discipline, as the benefits of using Psi-surge were outweighed by the cost on my last two attempts at the book. I'll still pick Psi-surge next, as that'll complete a Lore-circle and give me an extra 3 Combat Skill in the lead-up to some of the series' nastier fights, but Nexus can be useful for more than just stat enhancement.

Long-term doomed companion Paido and I will travel by road rather than by barge, so I can check out a few paths not taken. For starters, when the weather takes a turn for the worse, we seek shelter in the inn rather than the mill, hoping that its inhabitants are less suspicious of strangers. We are greeted by the aroma of fresh baking, and a one-eyed dwarf welcomes us, inviting us to dry off by the fire and sample the establishment's fare. For some reason Mongoose illustrator Rich Longmore has chosen to depict the wheat cakes that are on offer as a cheese board.

I engage the innkeeper in conversation, and he talks about himself for a long while. When Paido turns the topic to recent developments, the dwarf speaks dismissively of Warlord Zegron, but one of the farmers comments that his sister thinks Zegron will cause a lot of harm this time. It seems that she's a Prophetess, given to making accurate predictions of bad news. I ask the farmer for more information about her, and he gives directions to her home (in a more precise, less human-sounding way in the Mongoose text) and says to tell her that Jako sent us, as she doesn't like uninvited visitors.

At Topham Abbey I again interact with the monks. Yes, I know they're enemies. I was never in any doubt that they were bad guys. That was why I chose to talk with them the last time I played the book, and why I'm still doing so now, even though I also know that the encounter will lead to my losing a Special Item slot to a completely pointless bit of ballast: I happen to think that leaving a cell of undead infiltrators to continue with whatever sabotage, subversion and other shenanigans they may be up to is a bad idea.

When we reach the house where the Prophetess Tadia lives, I name-drop Jako, and the text has me flatter the crone who opens the door by asking if she's Tadia. The real Tadia calls from within the house, telling her mother to let us in, as we are expected. Up the stairs we find a predictably beautiful young woman (or, judging by the Beaver Books illustration, an androgynous grump) with a telescope and lots of books. She reveals that she knows who I am, and I have to dissuade Paido from drawing his sword, as he seems not to get that being a Prophetess involves knowing stuff of which everyday folk are unaware.

Tadia tells me that the safest route to my goal is through the Mordril Forest, and offers me a selection of potions and weapons. The Mongoose text includes a number of minor tweaks, and on this occasion I think every one is an improvement. I take most of the potions - one to boost Combat Skill, one that heals more damage than standard healing potions, and one that doesn't heal so much, but is also effective against some diseases. I don't anticipate contracting anything, but I'd rather have the cure and not need it than vice versa.

Proceeding to Tharro, I buy the ring with unspecified magical qualities, and since the text gives me the option of selling off unwanted Special Items, I get rid of the Lodestone with which I was burdened at the Abbey. The book forced me to take it, but doesn't forbid ditching it now, so I might as well take what compensation I can for the annoyance.

When Paido and I are offered the poisoned stew in the Abbey, I eat a Meal from my Backpack rather than go hungry. This agitates the monks, and this time I notice something when the senior monk who's actually a disguised Helghast asks who's eaten: we are referred to as 'the Vakeros' and 'the Kai lord'. Now, it's possible that we had already revealed our identities for some reason - the text is vague about what (if any) dialogue precedes the offer of food - but this could also be a clue that the 'monks' know more about us than they have reason to.

For once I don't draw my bow, but the Helghast-monk still orders that the brothers be summoned. I'm almost tempted to check out the option for demanding that he let Paido and me leave unharmed, but going with a clearly bad idea just to see what happens immediately before a fight that's already killed one Lone Wolf seems less than clever, so I draw the Sommerswerd and attack.

Incidentally, while contributing to online discussion of this book elsewhere, I discovered a peculiarity in the Helghast's stats. I have known for some time that its Combat Skill varies depending on the weapon you use against it, and just accepted that that reflected the creature's defences being better against Kai enchantments than Vakeros ones (since players without the Sommerswerd need to use Paido's sword to be able to harm the Helghast). However, it turns out to be more complex (and nonsensical) than I had thought. The Helghast has 38 Combat Skill against a Sommerswerd-wielding Lone Wolf, and just 28 if you have to borrow Paido's sword - but only as long as you don't eat the stew. If you do eat it but have the means of surviving the poison, the Helghast has 34 Combat Skill regardless of your weapon. The difference in its Combat Skill could be explained away for players using Paido's sword - you're still recovering from the poison, and the Helghast's higher Combat Skill reflects the impairment of your fighting skills caused by the side-effects. But a player using the Sommerswerd has an easier fight when debilitated by the poison. As the Heghast might put it, 'Teg moggador?'

Typical! That's the first time since I've been keeping track of such things that I would have been better off using Psi-surge during the fight. Nevertheless, I survived and the Helghast didn't. When the other monks arrive, I attack them because my Endurance is so low. That might seem a bit counter-intuitive, but I know that fleeing will definitely result in my taking damage - potentially enough to kill me - while the various boosts I have to Combat Skill give me decent odds of losing less Endurance in a fight against this mob. As it turns out, I wipe them out without taking a scratch.

Other monks are still on the hunt, so I flee, hide, heal Paido, and flee some more as before. In the Mordril Forest my Silver Bow enables me to shoot the Anapheg before it's finished crossing the bridge. In its death throes it pulls the horse I'm riding over the edge, and Huntmastery ensures that I avoid getting dragged down with it. The horse Paido's riding also plunges to its doom (perhaps giving in to peer pressure), but he dismounts in time to not need rescuing.

At night I have Paido take the first watch, and get a much better rest than when he slept first. The following day, Nexus confirms what I theorised last time - noxious gas on the path I didn't take. I go the same way as before - the gas won't bother me, but why make things uncomfortable for Paido? That's a rhetorical question, I hasten to add: I know that some of Paido's detractors can get quite vociferous, and wouldn't want any of them to take it as an invitation to post an essay in the comments explaining why they believe he deserves to suffer.

Randomness determines that before reaching the temple we seek, Paido and I have a run-in with a giant spider (depicted better in the Mongoose edition than the original). I shoot an arrow into one of its eyes and hurt it badly enough to avoid a fight. After that things transpire as before.

Before I get going in The Cauldron of Fear, I go back to where I keep excess cash and other belongings, drop off some things I no longer need (some of which I never did, but was forced to lug around anyway), and put the Sommerswerd into storage while retrieving the Dagger of Vashna.

When Banedon and I get to the wonky signpost, I remember that I don't have Pathsmanship, and thus am not in a position to note that it's pointing the wrong way, but I take the correct turning anyway because the text gives me the option of doing so and I have the Gamebook Blogger Discipline of Metaknowledge.

As before, the Tahouese President votes in my favour, so Chil sabotages my descent into the Cauldron. This time the random number generator (combined with the bonus for having Nexus) ensures that I drown (in the 'got the section numbers the wrong way round' original text) or have no difficulty making it to the surface of the lake and swimming ashore (in the definitely improved (at least here) Mongoose edit).

Metaknowledge reminds me that there's no way of avoiding the fight with the Psi-Ghoul, so I take the initiative and attack it, gaining a bonus to Combat Skill for my preparedness. Then, when I first encounter the Crocaryx, I try to get close to them without attracting attention, but I don't have Invisibility, and consequently make a noise treading on the gravel that covers the floor, startling the locals as much as if I'd called out to them anyway.

Kai Principalins (at least) who chose Invisibility, apparently.

After that things transpire much as before until the climactic confrontation, where I fall foul of the 1 in 10 chance of failing to hit the Zakhan with the Dagger, and get a rather large hole burned through my thorax. Reload save, go back to the start of the book.

On my next attempt I just speak to the Crocaryx and scare them that way. Once back in Tahou, I miss my shot when trying to snipe a Drakkar, take a fair bit of damage fighting a few of his buddies, and am fatally crushed by a large stone hurled from a catapult because I didn't want to risk leaping onto a speeding wagon, and there was no warning of the probable consequences (60% chance of Instant Death unless you have the Lore-circle I was going to complete next). Back to the beginning again.

My next try sees the President vote against me, prompting Chil to call for my arrest. I flee, and a guard throws a net at me. Randomness determines the outcome, with a modifier or two. Neither text indicates whether the possible modifiers are cumulative, but since it's impossible to get the second bonus without qualifying for the first one, it seems likely that I'm only supposed to be able to claim one. I'm a little surprised that the Mongoose edition doesn't clear up the exploitable ambiguity, though.

In any case, regardless of bonus, I evade the net and hurl myself down a flight of stairs. Three soldiers armed with wooden staves attempt to intercept me, and I hurt them and continue on my way. A corridor leads to the busy entrance hall, where a couple of halberd-wielding soldiers have yet to learn that there's a fugitive in the building. But through a window I can see the carriage in which I travelled here, and the Law of Heroic Exits demands that I depart in a shower of broken glass if at all possible.

A warning about the thickness of the glass suggests that Joe Dever might have chosen not to uphold that law, so I change my plan and prepare to bring a little excitement into those two soldiers' lives. Very little excitement, as it turns out: the noise of the crowd prevents them from hearing my approach, and I'm gone before they have time to wonder who the green-cloaked man who just raced past them might be, or why I should be in such a hurry.

I take refuge in the area known as the Parish of Thieves, inexplicably aware that a Guard Captain with a telescope saw my escape and has sent a squad of his best men after me. Ducking into a crowded tavern, I pick an out-of-the-way seat, only to find that it has already been claimed by a patron who's just on his way back from the bar. He threatens me (self-aggrandisingly introducing himself as he does, thereby showing himself to be Sogh, the protagonist of the Mongoose edition's mini-adventure), but before I can decide how to respond, that squad of guards bursts through the doors.

Assuming that this is just an ordinary tavern raid, most of those present stampede towards the exit, while Sogh heads for a less obvious archway. Inferring that he has the sort of local knowledge that could prove invaluable in this situation, I follow him and ask for help, and he demands my money pouch in return for his assistance. Not having a lot of choice, I pay up.

Sogh leads me through a secret door into a passage which leads via the sewers to another concealed exit. Beyond is a ridiculously opulent chamber (the mounds of treasure are understandable, but how does a hidden room right next to a sewer have fragrant breezes wafting through it?), in which a fancily-dressed senior thief dozes on a couch. Waking, the man berates Sogh for bringing an outsider here, suggests I might be a spy or an assassin, and uses a magical gem to probe my mind. Not even my Psi-screen (inaccurately referred to as Psi-shield in the original text, though Mongoose fixed that error) can keep him from compelling me to reveal my identity, though it does at least keep me from taking any damage.

Once I've explained my circumstances, the man (who also does the clunky 'refer to himself in the third person' thing to let me know that he's Maghana the Guildmaster) reveals that there are routes to the subterranean city other than the Cauldron, which he has used to send many thieves to retrieve ancient loot or die in the attempt. He's willing to show me one of the shafts leading to Zaaryx, on condition that, should I discover the corpse of his son (who went down there in search of gold a few months back), I retrieve the ring on the body's right hand and return it to Maghana. That seems pretty trivial for an offer I can't refuse, but given that (as far as I know) the only ring that can be found down there is the Psychic one worn by the Psi-Ghoul, there is more to the request than Maghana is letting on.

I accept his terms, and he leads me to a room containing tables laden with equipment for expeditions into the lost city. Maghana opens another secret door, this one opening onto darkness and the stench of decay, and invites me to help myself to anything from the tables that might be of assistance. The list of items on offer is similar to the one in Chil's warehouse, and again the Mongoose text has rearranged the list without sorting the items into a significantly more logical order.

Turning my attention to the newly revealed exit, I see that a rope ladder leads down into the void below. I haul the ladder up to check it, which takes some effort, as it's around 400 feet long (just under 122m). It's going to be a long climb - but the only way is down.

For some time I descend. The wind blows the ladder against an unseen outcrop of rock, causing me to lose my grip, and modified randomness determines what happens next. Not for the first time, the text specifies 'or' when 'and/or' would be more appropriate when listing the Disciplines that could improve my odds (and Mongoose didn't fix that minor bug), but I get a score in the optimal range even before bonuses can come into play. Regaining my grip in the nick of time, I wait for the ladder to become steadier, and then go on climbing.

Eventually I reach the bottom of the ladder. Which is not also the bottom of the shaft. There is a ledge somewhere vaguely close-ish, but I have still have the Rope I got at the start of Jungle, so I tie that to the bottom of the ladder and use that to get down to solid ground around twenty feet below. Nearby are the remains of someone who failed to survive the descent. The body is more decayed than I'd expect the Guildmaster's son to be, but I check it out anyway. There are no rings on any of the dead man's fingers, and his pack shows signs of having been looted.

A tunnel slopes down from the chamber I've reached, so I proceed along that.  An earth tremor causes the roof to crack, showering me with dust and rubble, and if I didn't have Nexus, I'd now be turning to section 291. As it is, I'm able to avoid breathing in any of the more harmful components of the dust cloud.

Another tremor makes me lose my footing, sliding down the rest of the tunnel to land beside a subterranean lake, and the mouth of the tunnel caves in to ensure that I can't turn back. This is, of course, the same lake into which I would have plunged if the President had approved my request to access the Cauldron, so I'm back on familiar ground for the rest of the adventure.

Once I'm back above ground, I decide to accompany the Captain whom I assisted in the burning building. As he's driving his wagon towards the North Tower, I catch sight of Banedon atop a tower we'll be passing, and ask to disembark. The Captain refuses to even slow down, and Divination tells me that staying with him is liable to prove fatal, so I jump off before the inevitable crash. More randomness determines how well I land, and this time I fare poorly even with the bonus for having the right Discipline. Still, knees and chins can heal (even if Healing won't do it), and while the book doesn't mention the obligatory solitary wheel rolling away from the wreck of the wagon, I'm sure it's there in the background as I pick myself up.

This time I don't miss when hurling the Dagger at the Zakhan, and can move on to The Dungeons of Torgar. Between books I recover the Sommerswerd, the Alether potion from Kalte, the last of the Oede herb from Vassagonia, and what cash I had put into safe keeping. If I hadn't needed to replay Cauldron twice, I might have had another try at avenging Cyrilus on the more dangerous route through the book, but with the end of the month looming, I'll just go the easiest way. Which is bad news for Sebb Jarel, but business as usual for me.

Only a few things happen differently from on my last successful attempt at this book. Thanks to the Silver Bow, I kill the attacking wolf with a single arrow (and the Mongoose edit makes its death slightly more graphic). When Jarel and I make camp on an island, a few Bhakish (piscine humanoids) attack while I’m on watch during the night. An arrow takes care of one of them, and the creature’s dying screams wake Sebb, who fights alongside me to make short work of the others. We dispose of the corpses in the water, which causes something of a feeding frenzy among the local aquatic predators, as a result of which we do not have a restful night, which costs Endurance.

Outside Torgar, when Adamas tosses a coin to determine which of us plants the explosive, I call ‘Heads’, thereby getting the mission myself. A Mongoose edit fixes one oddity in the text: originally, if you call tails, you win the toss and Adamas has to take the risk, but if you call heads, you win the toss and consequently get to face the danger. Post-edit, the coin comes down tails regardless of what you choose, and it's consistently the loser who undertakes the perilous task.

Randomness with modifiers determines how I fare while trying to dodge enemy missiles on my way to the door. This time the book makes it clear that the bonuses are cumulative (and Mongoose adds a minor penalty for having a low Endurance, which doesn’t affect me, but is a more significant edit than many). I get a middling outcome, which means that a hurled rock injures me, but I plant the device and make it back to cover in the nick of time. Mongoose again tweak the description of how narrowly I make it, this time turning ‘just’ to ‘hardly’.

The random number check at the top of the stairs has me successfully conceal myself from the Drakkar officer, as a result of which I don’t get his key. Still, Nexus allows me to pick the lock, and if I didn’t have that, I could try picking it with a dagger. I’m carrying the Dagger of Vashna, but I don’t get to employ the spirit of the baddest Darklord of all time as a lockpick, because the Nexus check comes first, and there’s no ‘if you wish to use it’, so I have no choice but to use the Discipline. A pity, but Nexus has been too useful since I acquired it to be worth skipping for the sake of mildly humiliating a long-dead villain.

Playing the books close together reminds me of something. Back at the end of Jungle I was told that Paido and I would meet and fight again, side by side. Back when I previously won that book at this blog, I expressed my doubts about the accuracy of that prediction, and what happens after I rescue Paido? Divination makes us hide from the Death Knights, the creatures around the portal to the Daziarn run away as soon as they see us, and Gnaag destroys the gantry on which I’m climbing without either of us engaging in combat. So much for fighting side by side.

Moving on to Echoes of Lost Light, I decide to risk taking the route I did on my first two attempts at the adventure rather than the one that I tried when I won. Partly because I'm curious about paths not taken, and partly because I'm going into the adventure with a diminished Endurance (thanks to lack of sleep and a hurled rock), and the only opportunity to recover any of which I am aware is on that path.

The best laid plans... On this occasion I fail to create the first bridge, and wind up having to go via the keep anyway. After killing my ambushers, I decide to investigate the signs of movement visible through the damaged door, and find a dead Drakkar, which some of the local rats have identified as food. A hallway leads onwards, but the ceiling looks unstable, so I look for an alternative route, and see indications that something has dragged several corpses through a hole in the floor.

Combat damage heals more easily than wounds inflicted by falling debris, so I go through the hole. The text tries to encourage me to turn back, but I persist, eventually reaching a chamber where a Giak is cooking an assortment of body parts in a cauldron, watched over by a couple of akataz hounds. Time to spoil the broth, I think.

The fight has a potentially interesting wrinkle, wasted on such an easy battle. The Giak sets the akataz on me, and yells to provoke their bloodlust. In each successive round they gain a point of Combat Skill owing to his provocation. At any point I may shoot him with an arrow, causing the akataz to revert to their base Combat Skill, but inflicting no Endurance damage on them during the round in which I kill their master. Against a mid-range opponent this could be a bit of a balancing act, but since I can (and do) kill the akataz in the very first round, there's never any need to decide whether or not it's worth prolonging the fight by a round in order to keep my opponents from becoming too serious a threat.

A ladder leads back up, taking me to the first gap between city fragments on this path. As a consequence of having failed to create a bridge once, I don't get to pick a random number this time. Instead, I concentrate extra hard, bringing the bridge into existence but taking damage from the effort. After that I do the same as previously for a bit, but avoid the not-yet-dead enemy with the blasting weapon.

When skirting the marketplace the random number generator gives me the least likely outcome. While distribution of numbers would suggest that it's a middling result, that seems not to be the case. Urged by some impulse towards a sausage-vendor's stall, I find that the deceased proprietor wears a medallion, depicting Lone Wolf's god in the garb of a local warrior. It gives off a faint light, and I decide to take it. And it appears that the medallion would help me overcome the final void if I had no other means of getting past it, but as I have the required Discipline at the appropriate level, that takes precedence.

The climactic battle is no real challenge, especially as this time round I made sure to take Hammer as one of my bonus Weaponmastery proficiencies when levelling up at the end of a previous book. Mandatory Endurance expenditure has left me in a less than ideal condition, so there's a slim possibility that I won't survive to the first full restoration of health in the next book, but I think I'll give my next attempt at The Prisoners of Time its own post rather than make this entry any longer, so that's a concern for another day.