[Fighting Fantasy] Bloodsword v2

Here we're continuing the quest started in this thread. We'll keep the heroes from the last book, of course.

We're now reading the second book in the series, The Kingdom of Wyrd.

Apparently, they didn't find any inspiring image for this place. Here are some covers from the book:

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That's s better suited for the Sorcery! book "The Severn Serpent"s. The Kingdom of Wyrd is the most desolate place in the land of Legend. Honestly: Kracht was not-Russia, with like 7 months of winter, and if you go even deeper, you reach the sea, and an island where the Kingdom stands, ruled by a lieutnant of the True Magi (who once ruled over Kracht from their citadel of Spyte). In one sentence: it's not-Siberia. And you don't see many cobras in not-Siberia.

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A newer edition, depicting a minor scene from the book. It's at least relevant, but it still doesn't evoke the kingdom of Wyrd and you can't get any information from the cover.

Lastly, the French edition (the cover from book 1 was just the team of 4 heroes).

1737227008365.webp


It's my favourite, because it (1) display the landscape of desolate steppe that is supposed to be the Kingdom of Wyrd (or is it the Kyngdom of Wird?) (2) it is titled "The master of dreams" which is... actually spoiling us on who is the main opponent in this book and on his favorite modus operandi, controlling dreams. Lastly, it is the one I had when I was a young teenager. The style isn't wonderful, though.

What do we know with the title? Well, from the lore that isn't mentionned in this book but one can glean by reading the RPG's campaign world book, the Kingdom of Wyrd was a principality of old Kracht.

Here is a map to help locate it.
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For the last 600 years, it has been ruled by the Warlock-King[*]. HIs reign is stable and peaceful, mostly due to the fact that he can use magic to enter the dreams of his people, and detect if they dream of him losing his throne, so he can have his soldiers remove them before they even have a chance to hatch a plan, and plague them with nightmare so they die of fright if needed. The climate is even more desolate than in Kracht. The sea is covered in ice during winter. Nice place isn't it?

There is only, from the lore, one source of opposition: while there are rulers, administrators and a mass of peasnt as the three castes of society, there are the Seers. They are wandering prophets, revered by the peasants, and they seem to openly defy the Warlock-King power. Nobody knows why he doesn't have them killed, but they soothe the life of the peasants as they go.


Of this, however, we will know nothing if we just pick the gamebook series. Like the first book, exposition is scarce. We learn that we had a few weeks of rest after our victory, so our wounds are healed. Apparently, we also spent all the gold we supposedly gained in the Battlepits since we get no new gold.

[*] I guess it's because Joe Dever has already created a Wytch-King, Shasarak, for Grey Star to fight.
 

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Well, we do get a map in the book.

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So, basically, after our victory -- we had come to Krarcht to compete in the Pits, for no discernable reason other than becoming rich and famous -- we decided to... head west. As you can see on the big map, civilization is either East (to reach Not-England and Not-France) or possibly south (to reach Emphidor (not-Greece) and the New Selentine Empire (not-Byzantium). For some reason (do they all have WIS 3 ? Maybe our group of adventuring ladies is also known as the Dellings?) we ran... east, toward one of the worse part of the world. That and the disappearnce of any additional money could mean that our group drank all his gold and walked in a drunken stupor for a few days, leading us to this part of the world.

And we we'll be given NO "The Story So Far" section to explain this bizarre choice of destination.


The game starts in medias res again, with a an old woman reading cards for us. She says we will embark on a quest of restoration, righting some ill, The journey will be long, with great hardship. We will face a powerful ruler. We will be aided by a woman in our quest, she adds. Then she says her vision of the future has ended, and reminds us we agreed to pay 2 gp for a reading.

We can pay (355), pay her only 1 gp (343) or refuse to any money (259).

Logically, given the lack of tangible information I'd say it's not worth 2 gp, or anything at all. but the game lore informs us that the only force of good in this land are the Seers. It wouldn't be wise to get on their wrong side on section 1 of the game, wouldn't it?
 


Psst. Just noticed a typo in the thread title: blood WORD instead of blood SWORD.

To edit it:
  1. Go to the top of the thread.
  2. Click the three-dot menu in the upper right (next to Watch/Unwatch).
  3. Choose "Edit thread".
  4. Make the correction.
  5. Save.
 


So, basically, after our victory -- we had come to Krarcht to compete in the Pits, for no discernable reason other than becoming rich and famous -- we decided to... head west. As you can see on the big map, civilization is either East (to reach Not-England and Not-France) or possibly south (to reach Emphidor (not-Greece) and the New Selentine Empire (not-Byzantium). For some reason (do they all have WIS 3 ? Maybe our group of adventuring ladies is also known as the Dellings?) we ran... east, toward one of the worse part of the world.

Link the the Sceptre of Power story, whence the WIS 3 / Delling joke. For the benefit of any future readers unaware of the clever cross promotion we have going on here.
 

So, we accept to pay what we promised to pay. We're not cheap adventurers. Also, it's wise within the context of this book.

We're immediately rewarded by her smile and we notice she's not some toothless crone as we initially thought but her face is one of a "proud and handsome woman."

I don't know what to do with this information. Male characters would probably feel more at ease with giving money to a pretty woman than a handsome woman, wouldn't they? Anyway, it doesn't matter since our group is composed exclusively of straight women.

She sweetens the deal by giving us an herbal salve to sooth the wounds (one item, 5 doses, each giving back +1d6 HP).

Had we known, we'd have promised her 10 gp for her reading.

After this event, we regroup with the caravan of travellers crossing south-eastern Kracht together to mitigate the danger. Great, maybe it will an opportunity to learn what we're doing here? Were we press-ganged into being guards for them?

We notice they have split into two crowds. One listening to a bard playing the flute, another enthralled by a game of Krarthian checkers. We are informed that it is strange, since Krarthian checkers is practiced by nobility, and the simple minds of the merchant class wouldn't be sophisticated enough to enjoy this game.

Wow, we're being judgmental but to be honest, Dragon Warrior was low fantasy, more akin to a middle ages morality, and that's totally what someone from the period would think.

As we get closer to the bard, he offers to play an instrument alongside his song. Esmeralda summons a Faltyn to create music, showcasing that generative transdimensional intelligence can create soulful music quicker than anyone can learn to handle an instrument. The audience likes our song and gives us money. The Faltyn takes his share, and we're left with 5 gold (minus the 2 we gave the reader, we're now net positive with 3 golds, only a few sections into this adventure.

We're now focussing on the game of checkers. The merchants are so into it that they don't greet us back when we salute them. We look at the game for some time, before Salvia remarks that they are probably not playing Krarthian checkers, since they are making many illegal moves. She's then offered to use ESP. Out of the blue. Sure, why not?

We detect their thoughts and it confirms that they are not playing bona fide Krarthian checkers, but cooperating to create patterns on the board. THey continue until all the white pieces are centered on the board, and the black pieces are surrounding them. When a black piece takes a white piece, a merchant leaves the group and goes to bed. At last, the two players nods and wrap their game without finishing it. Something is really amiss.

We're asked if we want to go to bed or stay awake?

Honestly, we are probably guards in this caravan, even if we can't remeber a thing about our presence here, and it was emphasized that merchants travelled together for protection, so it wouldn't be wise to go to sleep. Also, we just remarked something odd.

I guess we'll stay awake...
 

“Handsome woman” is an old-timey term that, indeed, means “good looking”. It’s the kind of phrase you’d find in Charles Dickens or Mark Twain. At some point “handsome” became male only so today nobody says “handsome woman” any more.

(From memory. I could Google this but where’s the fun in that?)



I like the casual summoning! It feels very Vancian. Like you can totally imagine Rhialto or Turjan summoning a Faltyn to play nice music rather than murder some kobolds or whatever the D&D wizards are doing.

I also like the mystery of the checkers board. On the one hand, “arrange pieces in patterns until someone has to go to bed” is absolutely something that would be in a Jack Vance book and would not be in any way sinister (just weird and cool); on the other hand, this feels dangerous.
 

Since we're already to worried to just sleep and are intent to take turns to sleep, why not continue demonstrating our mastery of the arcane art and proceed with following with the suggestion that our Enchanter cast Prediction? Esmeralda chants a few words and the skein of the present suddenly separates and blows away as a cobweb disturbed by a sharp gust of winds. Before [us] is the same forest clearing in which [we] stand. But it is now night and the scene is full of the carnage of battle. [We] see mutilated corpses lying on the ground as their killers stand over them, repeatedly stabbing them with wickedly curved assassins' knives. The victims of the assault are the foresters and you see among the ghastly corpses one wearing a cape that ressembles our own.
The vision is evocative, but I also like the writing of the casting of the spell.

Anyway, it is now 200% certain that we will be ambushed during the night. We're sent to a section that tells us "You now think something is amiss" or something like that. Just in case the prospect of being murdered by the merchants at night was a commonplace precognition. I guess it's because it's a short "landing section" where several pathes end up.

Offered with the opportunity to still go to bed (huh?) or act, we decide to act.

We're probably going to create a cunning and devious plan to expose the assassins, are we? Unfortunately, the warrior is in charge of dangerous situations involving carnage.

If anything untoward is going on, common sense would suggest that the checkers players are behind it. You march up to one and summarily plant a weapon at his throat.

Subtlety, your name isn't Winny.

"Your Honor, I swear I was totally right to kill these merchants. They played checkers, a game far above their station, and went to bed as they grow bored! Also, I sniffed some magical herbs and saw they were assassins in disguise!"

We're in a middle of camp with women, children, foresters... being heroic was probably something lost during Book 1. We're now random murderhobos. I wonder how many gp we'll get to loot from the merchants still warm bodies.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we were right to be suspicious. There were two werewolves (we offed one) and entranced merchants that are hypnotized into doing the werewolves bidding. They proceed to attack the sleeping foresters. The description and dialogue (because, yes, we chatted with the remaining werewolf) laster three paragraphs and nobody in our group had the common sense to yell something so the forester can flee?

No, instead we'll try to quietly kill the last werewolf and the three mindcontrolled servants that happen to be sleeping around him.

1737826194934.png


There are no special rules for this battle.

I was expecting, at least, a cryptic line like "Whenever the werewolf dies, turn to XX", so that killing him would release the merchants from his mind control.

But no. We're going to cut in half three merchants whose only crime was to watch a game of magical checker and fail their saving throws.

So be it.

Round 1:

Werewolf attacks Winny -- that what you get from discussing with a beast after you've killed her brother instead of attacking it while still surprised, especially when said beast has superhuman reflexes. It rolls a 7, hitting for 7-3= 4 HP.

Trixie moves to the square in diagonal from the two westernmost servants. This way, she'll be closer from then than Salvia and Esmeralda, so she'll withstand their assault in full defence.

Then, the rest of our heroes act.
Winny whacks wimpy werewolf (8) for 4-1=3 HP.

Salvia fires an arrow at southernmost servant with her +1 bow (8) for 6 damage.
Esmeralda calls Sheet Lightning to her mind [honestly, she could have done that before the fight but let's play straight, I didn't mention it].

The northernmost servant move one square down to Trixie.
The northwesternmost servant moves one square south to Trixie
The southernmost servant moves one square east to Trixie and and Salvia

1737828957605.png

Round 2:

Werewolf slashes at Winny and misses (8).
Trixie defends.

Winny wracks weak werewolf (8) for 4-1=3 HP (6 left).
Salvia is in close contact so attacks with her staff and misses (11).
Esmeralda casts Sheet Lightning : 11 on the dice, plus 4 for the difficulty of the spell, that's 15, unfortunately, she has only 15 PA, 13 effective with 2 spells in mind, so it's a miss.

Servants attack Trixie and miss... except ONE (roll 1, 1, 2 = 4+1 = 5). Kudos to him. Unfortunately his damage of 2 is absorbed by Trixie's armour. The little servant that could.

Round 3:


Werewolf slashes at Winny and misses (9).
Trixie defends.

Winny wipes weedy werewolf (4) for 7-1= 6 HP (he falls) and she yells that she doesn't need no magic user to win a fight.
Salvia is in close contact so attacks with her staff and misses (11).
Esmeralda casts Sheet Lightning again, 9+4-2= 11, and everyone is awed for 10 damage.

I guess we won't hear again from the mind-controlled merchants as they lacked any form of armour.
 

After this heroic fights that lasted all of 18 seconds, we catch our breath and assess the situation...

The camp site is strewn about with the corpses and severed limbs of those slain in combat. All the foresters and merchants are dead [...]

I guess we did well. [I am being dishonest, I cut the sentence at the point where some had fled into the forest].

On the other hand, there were mentions of women and children in the previous sentence. I guess they count as corpses right now, there is no way they fled far away in 18 seconds of intense fighting, especially since they started in a deep sleep. Even if they wake up immediately, started running at once and are all Hussain Bolt, they are 200 meters away, max.

Also, I don't want to rub salt in the wound, but there is absolutely no reason for Sheet Lightning to spare the onlookers. Oopsie...

Provided they somehow survived, they will certainly see with great relief that we handled the situation well...

... and that we're now proceeding with...

... can you guess it? ...

Yes, that's it! Looting time!... You search the camp thoroughly, discovering a scattering of coins that amounts to 45 gold pieces.

We also collect the checker board of Merchant Dooming and a silver wolf clasp on a cap that Winny will want. The gold will goes with Trixie and her round, plump purse of 150 gp now.

The tale of our heroes will recount the moment where they saved the innocent from a pair of werewolf by killing all the innocent with a magical mortar round after failing to warn them from the werewolf's servants and looting their corpses under the eyes of their widows and orphaned children.
 

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