[Fighting Fantasy] Bloodsword v1

[Joshua Randall]

I started thinking about this mini-game and rapidly went cross-eyed.

What happens to the coin(s) someone wins from the other — are they considered unflipped and add to your unflipped total? Or are they coins you win set off to the side, so you only get to work with your original six?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The coins aren't gained, they are set aside. And you start with 7 coins.

Honestly, I guess we could try to calculate the odds of each move depending on his choice number, but I feel it to be too tiring a task. Let's take 3, it's an average number and go from it.

He has chosen 5. So, we lose 2 gold coin (we have 5 remaining), and he turns 5 of his 7 coins to tail.
During the recovery phase, he recovers one coin, so he has 3 unturned coins and 4 tails.

He is limited to playing 1 or 2, while we can play 1-4 (we can't play all of our unturned coins at once).

If we play 4, our maximum, and he plays 1, he loses. He'd lose 3 coins, all of his. So he is basically obliged to play 2 to avoid lose (he can't know that we won't play 4). And actually, since there is a chance for him to lose, let's play 4.

He plays 2, as we expected. So he loses two coins -- he is now left with 1 unturned, 4 tails. We turn four of our coins, so we have 1 unturned, 4 turned. During recovery, we but turn one coin each, so he has 2 unturned, 3 tails, while we have 2 unturned, 3 tails. We have a similar hand.

The section informs us that since we have only two unturned coin each, we are limited to play 1 each, resulting in a draw, and after the next recovery we each have 3 heads and two tails. We can play 1 or 2.

I play 2, and he plays 2. After recovering, Kief comments on my ability as I "prevent him from gaining ground". Somehow.
We both have 4 heads and 1 tail. Since another drow would give us both 5 heads, we'd be in a similar position to the starting position, but with each 5 coins instead of 7. I chose 3 coins. He chose three coins.

Both both have 5 coins. He again compliments me on him having to lose ground. I am as baffled right now than when I was 12.

I'll just quote the section there:

Grandmaster Kief watches you with an inscrutable smile. Well done, he says at last. You are an implacable opponent. I concede a draw, and this is not something I do lightly. A reward for your valiant efforts, then..." and he proceeds to give us an Ice Jewel.

Apparently, we don't get a say in whether we accept the draw, or if the game is finished. I am really puzzled. He then casts a spell to teleport us further into the dungeon.

Honestly, I can't say if it's something other than chance at guessing his first move. Flipping through the section, there is a way to beat him, but I don't know how we are supposed to pass this puzzle. If someone has some kind of explanation...

 

[Joshua Randall]

Why can’t he play 3?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

One can't play a number that equals or exceeds one's number of heads.

 

[Joshua Randall]

This wouldn’t be the only game book math puzzle that is impossible to solve due to either a math error or an”turn to NNN” error.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Kief's spell is terrifying. It's letting us slide through the solid floor. Thankfully, he remembers to stop his magic once we're right at the level below the arena, and not in the core of the Earth.

Wait, maybe we're nearer to it than hoped, since we're informed of the stiffling heat.

Yet, we're at the top of a stair that only goes down. Kudoos for the engineers and architect.

We emerge over the magma chamber of a volcano. Not any volcano, since we're in a two kilometers wide underground lava lake. The stairs went down to a ledge bordering it.

Googling informed me that the largest recorded lava lake was formed by volcano Nyiragongo in 1982, and reached 2,300 feet. That's 3 times smaller than this monster. Also, we should be dead suffocated by toxic gases.
We're now located behind Kalugen's Keep. If we weren't awed enough by the view, we get to see that Kalugen uses the volcano as a way to dispose of wastes from the sewer system. Smart guy.

Across the lava lake are three "islands" of basalt linked by narrow bridges. The first is linked by two bridges, the second island has a temple with hags mocking us and directing a flock of Dirges toward us. If they are in the middle of the lake, we're seeing them cackling from a distance of 1 km. We have good sight.

The Dirges are approaching. They are floating on the hot air currents at high speed. We're offered to use an item. Why not? We're told to use our ice jewel, thanks Kief. Calling upon its power, we create enough cold air to stop the currents that allow the Dirge to sustain themselves above the lava and they plummet to their death. The Hags are nonplussed.

We reach the areas with the two bridges. One is plain and simple, the other passes under a statue of a gargoyle pouring water from its mouth in a huge cascade. An ominous voice tells us to choose to face what we fear most, or a face a lesser foe.

(142) Each character must choose a bridge.

I guess that the waterfall path is the safest, since it's obviously the worst-looking.
Let's have our character go. Trixie is first. She goes under the waterfall, and she feels groped by invisible hands...

That would be bad, but let's remember that at no point the book asked us for our gender, an all-boy team must be expected.
...and we're asked to roll Awareness (8, a success).

Not only do we manage to avoid the hands that are trying to take our possessions, but we manage to catch a bottle of a deadly poison called chimera's spit.

The briges reunite beside the waterfall. Apparently, the waterfall doesn't add anything to the path.

The hags summon a foe for us to fight on the bridge. In this case, they summon Hurondus the Blind, whom we killed in a duel several years ago. It's a spellcaster, and they say that only one of us will emerge with life. Let's do that, then...

Horondus the Blind, FP 7, PA 8, Awareness 7, HP 12. He has memorized a spell called sword thrust, that he cast by rolling 2d6+2 under his PA and deals 2d6+2 damage. We are not told that failing to cast a spell makes the task easier for him next turn. Esmeralda is really a kick-ass spellcaster.

Except she isn't there and we must fight alone.

Round 1

Trixie attacks, succeeds (7) for 1 damage (Enemy HP left: 11)
Horondus tries to cast his spell, 13, and misses.
Trixie does her bonus attack (5) and inflicts 2 damage (Enemy HP left: 9)

Round 2:
Trixie attacks, misses 8. Horondus attacks, misses (14).

Round 3:

Trixie attacks (4) and inflicts... 1 damage.
Horondus casts his spell (12).

Round 4:

Trixie attacks (4), inflicts 2 damage (6 HP left)
Horondus cast his spell 6, and inflicts... 5 damage (!), reduced to 3 by armour.

At least the damage dice were fair in being uniformy low.

Round 5 (after an hour or so of fencing...)

Trixie attacks (2) and inflicts 3 damage (HP 3 vs Trixie's 9)
We're told that after casting his spell, Horondus fights with his sword.
This is quite stupid, since he does only 1d6 of damage.

He rolls 7, hits but our armour absorbs the 1 damage.

Round 6:

Both miss.

Round 7:

Trixie attacks and inflicts 5 damage, killing Horondus.

I guess we'll pass through the waterfall-less bridge from now on.

Apparently, the hags are playing fair enough that they don't attack us before all of us have crossed. How nice of them.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Horondus fought horribly. That’s fun to say.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Horondus fought horribly. That’s fun to say.

Let's hope we won't get to fight Brilliantus next...

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Now is the turn of Salvia (I make them cross in their walking order).

Since there doesn't seem to be any difference after the waterfall, she goes to the nearest bridge.
The Hags proceed to do as they did with Horondus, this time summoning a foe called Nemesis. At least she isn't Way-of-the-Tiger's Nemesis.

She's a half-demon warrior, clad in black tattered robe, and wielding a sharp steel sword. We killed her six years ago. Either because she's the daughter of a demon (but that wouldn't be in keeping with modern sensitivity), so let's assume she did evil enough to warrant being killed by Salvia -- she wore the same dress at a party, for example.

Nemesis starts the fight by rushing on us and inflicting a nasty 4 HP slash. At least we aren't Esmeralda.

She has the same stats as Salvia, except she does 1 point of damage more and wears no armour (her tattered robe don't protect her...)

I could say that, since this section isn't technically a fight section, it's tempting to use Healing to restore our lost HPs. But we're a nun from the True Faith, so we are far above this.

We're offered the opportunity to Levitate over her instead of fighting her. Let's try that.

We're reminded that we need to put our mind in a detached state to practice levitation -- probably a skill taught in the monastery, as meditate to float in the lotus position is 100% a trope among monks of the Arthurian legend. Then, as we try to reach perfect Enlightenment, we are asked if we desire our foe's death or if we think that victory and defeat are equivalent.

What kind of silly question is that? Of course, we won't fall for the trap and declare that victory and defeat are equivalent and SUCK IT UP, BIATCH! We're flying and we have a bow, and you just have a tattered robe and you can put your dashed hope of victory UP YOUR... Yeah, we reached perfect state of ataraxia and are totally not concerned by our foe.
In our serene state, we float over the bridge. Nemesis try to jump at us, only to fall from the bridge to a certain death in the molten pool of lava.

This time, it's a non-combat section and we spend a HP to regain two of them, slowly beginning to heal magically (HP 7). We reach the other side of the bridge, reunite with Trixie and... another non combat section as the Hags ignore us. This time we spend 1 HP to heal and lose it right away.

We're back to 142 to select another character (Salvia heals back to 8), this time Esmeralda, who chose the nearest bridge (Salvia rolls a 6 on her healing dice, getting back to 10 and starting to heal Trixie back to 10.

This time the hags summon a Knight to face us. His coat of arms is a three-homed dragon in gold on an azure field. Either this dragon has three sheds, like the three little pigs, or they meant a three horned dragon. Anyway, his name is Guillaume Le Cauchemar (ditto). He must come from Chaubrette, which is the setting's not-France. We slew him a few monthes ago.

He calls us name, saying that we're a spell-tossing churl. I don't recognize this word, but I feel it's something mean.
Yet, he bows to us before starting the fight. He has FP 7, PA 6, Awareness 6, AR 3, 10 HP and does 1d6+1 damage.

We both act at the same time.

Round 1 : Guillaume rolls 11, he misses. Esmeralda rolls 2d6+5, a 17. Despite her PA of 14 now, she fails to cast her Nemesis Bolt -- maybe the spell was related to Salvia's fallen (in both sense of the word) foe?

Round 2 : Guillaume rolls 11 again -- that's good, because doing 1d6+1 damage, he can one-shot us on a 5 or 6 natural damage before modifier or armour. This time, since we attempted the same spell last round, we're rolling 2d6+3, a 9, so that's 12 and the spell is cast... doing 7d6+7 damage, for a total of 31. Guillaume is soundly turned to ashes by our spell.

Back to section 88, Salvia heals, and loses one HP.

It's time for Winny to cross (Salvia gets her HP back). She chooses the nearest bridge (Salvia loses another HP).

Winny is a Warrior. But the book makes fun of her. She's the only member of the party that is "perplexed" when the Hags say their magical formula "rise from the ashes" before realizing they are not talking to her. That's mean. You can be an INT-based fighter! Poor Winny.

The Hags have summoned a berserker wielding a warhammer. He's Beorn Smith-Hammer, which we dispatched three years ago. He has the exact same starting stats as Winny, except he only has 6 HP and inflicts 2d6+1 damage. His rotten chainmail gives him AR of 1.

Except we are wielding a magic sword, now, so we have an added edge.

Round 1: Beorn hits (7) for 7 net damage. Winny hits (9) for 6 damage. He's dead.

Well, that was anticlimatic.

We cross and this time Salvia loses one HP healing -- we're really unlucky. We get it back, with an added HP to put her back to 10.

The 3 hags have retreated to the steps of the (greek-looking) temple and are surrounding a series of cauldron. They are brewing potions, using disgusting ingredients. They dare us to taste their elixirs... (212).

 

[Joshua Randall]

I like how each enemy is related to the type of character.

Overall this gamebook has way more detail than I recall from FF. Maybe I only played the simple ones.