[Fighting Fantasy] Bloodsword v2

[Jfdlsjfd]

We rush toward the Warlock-King, who dissolves reality again.

Fighting this guy is like fighting Caecillius...

We are now in the ethereal void, trapped to the strand of a giant, silvery web spider, with the King on his throne in the center. He taunts us and offer us our life in exchange for the scabbard...

At this point, it wouuld have been easier to hire a random thief to steal it rather than trying to ask for it repeatedly...

We could struggle against the web and try to reach the throne or...

Use our magic carpet to fly there? No, I was just being sillly...

Ring an iron bell?

Remembering that the strange Seer in the village had told us about him being not really evil, just delusional and trapped in a nightmare, it's not waky-time and we ring the alarm-bell...

Reality shatters once again, and we wake on the beach of the lake on which the castle once stood. There is no trace of it. There is only an old man, quite disoriented, that is being led by the hand by a wise woman. She gives us the hilt of the blood sword she had recovered for us and resume speaking to the former King.

As we walk south, our quest here finished, we notice that everything has changed, and the dread and frost have been replaced by a verdant and bountiful land. The midwinter festival this year will be one full of happiness for the citizen of Wyrd.

Am I the only one to notice that they are STILL trapped in the dreams of a crotchety hold man, except it's no longer a nightmare but a nice, happy dream?

Anyway, who cares? We get 1,000 xp each. We're also cured from the ailments we contracted in the adventure.

Winny gains 1 Awareness, damage gets up to 2d6 and she gets 6 more HP.
Trixie gains 1 PA, 6 HP and damage raise to 1d6+2
Salvia gains 1 PA, 5HP and 1 Awareness, her damage raises to 1d6+2.
Esmeralda gainst 1 Fighting Prowess, 5 HP, and her base damage goes up to 1d6+1 -- basically a blank level except for HP for her.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Do you have any alternate path you're curious about?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I’m curious — does the book suggest an official way to keep track of which spell you have prepared? Or you’re on your own? (And how DO you keep track?)

Preparing a spell beforehand can be done outside of a fight, but you need to devote one PA point per spell kept in mind. Since Esmeralda has a base PA of 8, got 7 points exchanged from HP to PA for a total of 15, and is wearing a +1 PA brooch, her PA is 16. There is a balance to be struck between keeping spells in mind and being able to cast them, since the ability roll to cast them is 2d6+difficulty against the free PA. When having Nemesis Bolt, the 7d6+7 single target spell in mind, it's better to only have this one spell in mind, since then our free PA is 15, and rolling 2d6+5 has good odds of doing 15 or less. But memorizing it several times, or alongside another spell like Servile Enthrallment, reduces the odds of casting the spell successfully.

As the player, I should just say what I prepare before the fight, but I have in a few occasion forgotten to do so. And since I had prepared Sword Thrusts for an earlier fight, and didn't mention I changed my array, I kept Sword Thrusts. But there is no reason to prepare it only once given our supernatural level of Psychic Ability: it's a difficulty 3 spell, so the odds of memorizing it once or twice are the same (12 is a failure anyway).

If you want to cast an unprepared spell, you can, but it takes 1 round to recall the spell to mind, and it can be cast on the following round.

Ideally, we need Esmeralda to reach PA 19, so she can keep in mind Sheet Lightning, Nemesis Bolt and Servile Enthralment and still be PA 16, with the best odd of casting each of the 3 most useful combat spell on her list (area damage, single target damage and mind control).

We didn't do a lot of mind control so far. But... we will!

 

[Joshua Randall]

We rush toward the Warlock-King, who dissolves reality again.

Fighting this guy is like fighting Caecillius...

Nice. And that’s a cool ending. Much like the Doctor Strange movie, it’s neat when the boss fight ends not with a combat round, but with something more cerebral. Of course in gamebook land it has to involve a Capitalized Noun rather than “I’ve come to bargain”, but still cool.

We didn't do a lot of mind control so far. But... we will!

Muuuuuhahahahaha! lightning flashes, thunder booms

Do you have any alternate path you're curious about?

Is there a way to avoid the magic carpet ride?

What happens if we kinda randomly choose bridges to cross?

 

[gban007]

Nice. And that’s a cool ending. Much like the Doctor Strange movie, it’s neat when the boss fight ends not with a combat round, but with something more cerebral. Of course in gamebook land it has to involve a Capitalized Noun rather than “I’ve come to bargain”, but still cool.



Muuuuuhahahahaha! lightning flashes, thunder booms



Is there a way to avoid the magic carpet ride?

What happens if we kinda randomly choose bridges to cross?

My one would be what happens if accepted the kind offer by those nice chaps to help with their rowing for a bit?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

My one would be what happens if accepted the kind offer by those nice chaps to help with their rowing for a bit?

Starting by this one, since it would be a way to try and avoid Augustus and his magic carpet.

Arriving in Port Quanongu, we meet a nice chap offering passage in his rowing boat.

232 choice of magdalen

We avoid asking any question, notably about the destination, since we're elated by the proposal of that nice fellow so sympathetic with our need for transportation.

We're informed that the ship won't go anywhere near Wyrd during this whaling season. However, the captain is ready to make a detour by Dourhaven, from where we can walk to Wyrd over the pack ice, for a measly 15 gp per person. Which is absurd, since if he's ready to go to Dourhaven for 15 gp for one passenger, it costs nothing more to him if more people disembark.

But we can't really bargain, can we?

Also, the captain notices we're in fine physical shape (rowing does that to you...) and gather us to explain that he's taking this opportunity to go whale for not for a regular sea animal but for the World Serpent, a titanic beast he'd like to fish. He is glad that we joined his team. Apparently, rowing isn't enough, we've signed in for a fight as well...

We lose HP from rowing and seasickness.

After a few days, the bad sea become a true storm. The other whalers start accusing us of being bringer of bad luck, since we're strangers, and propose to cast us adrift in a small boat.

So, basically, we need to pay for rowing, fighting, and being sacrificed to the storm gods... 1 star, would not buy again.

We can either fight them -- a difficult fight to boot:

Leading to the ship continuing its search for the giant sea monster, which destroy the boat easily, with us escaping in a small boat

Accept to surrender and be thrown in the small boat... (We get saved miraculously, same as above).

Or use an item: the orb of fire (which destroys the ship, as you'd assume a firestorm causing item to do on a ship full of blubber oil...), give them weed (we'get popular, then they all fall into a stupor, and Winny puts the ringleaders in a small boat...) or a crucifix of St Ashanax (who conveniently starts glowing and pointing toward Dourhaven, while we can shame the superstitious sailors for doubting the True Faith and turning to worshipping idols and sea monsters.

Once in Dourhaven, you get an opportunty to shop, and the path rejoins at the point where we land from the magic carpet, crossing the iceshelf on foot.

All in all, the best path possible is only as good as just refusing the offer of the sailor.

There is another possibility, where you discuss with the press-ganger, insult him, then go to the inn, which proceeds normally except you meet the sailor again, inebriated and intent to kill you... which you do in self-defence, but the mob will side with their own of course, leading to a hasty escape... saved by a fine fellow offering an aerial escape route.

Finally, you can have doubt about being press-ganged, and jump on another leaving ship, the Magdalen. The captain just asks for help rowing the boat out of the harbour, as he's going to Dourhaven and the wind is blowing in the right direction for the trip. He recommands a better inn than Ulrik's Bones, and the next day we have a pleasant trip at sea...

Until we are hailed by a guy on a magic carpet offering a ride. Since we don't like him (a hunch) and decline, he utters an incantation (Latet mors in gurgite vasto which my years of studying Latin in high school helps me translate as Death lies in the huge abyss) to summon a Water Elemental to crush our ship, unless we surrender the scabbard.

We get three round to either kill him using ranged attacks, put him under servile enthrallment to make him dispel his summon (in which case he regains control of his action after that and flees) or kill in 3 round the 85 HP beast... or die.

Unless you have a warrior in the party, who is totally cool in the face of danger and try a desperation move of throwing its sword at Augustus who is gloating nearby... but this is a very low probability outcome.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I love that the whaling vessel captain is just casually hunting THE WORLD SERPENT, who will fight Thor to the death at Ragnarok.

—

Re: ranged attacks - is there the possibility for a character to be really good at these? Maybe items we bypassed because melee is cooler?

Or it’s more like Lone Wolf where every once in a while You Have A Bow And Choose To Use It, but ranged attacks aren’t really the book’s forté.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Is there a way to avoid the magic carpet ride?

Yes... first you can totally avoid Port Quanongu by getting lost in the forest after the initial fight with the werewolf, if you flee instead of defending the civilians. You can reach Dourhaven on foot. Then, there are a few ways around but you still meet him and deny his help -- but those are dangerous path, as outlined above.

What happens if we kinda randomly choose bridges to cross?

The path of Fear is the easiest one. You just face a huge, winged demon. If you charge it, it dissolves as an illusion. If you try to sneak past, you get stuck into a fight (poisonous scorpions) where it seems easy to flee -- they are not starting the fight next to anyone and incur the risk of insta-kill, except, that fleeing just makes the player lose an action as the door has been locked behind them. If you just go forward, you reach the dining hall, where a party was happening and all the guest are dead, horribly maimed. The blood trail leads to one door, and there is another door. The obvious correct path is of course to follow the bloodied path, since the other one will lead you to the courtyard... but you'll have no opportunity to get any support item that would let you survive the final army fight. If you follow the blood trail, you find a deadly wounded hydra that has limped in the other room to die and offers a pitiful fight (FP 7, 2d6+2 damage, 8 HP) and allows you to collect its teeth, that you'll be able to sow in the final confrontation. It think it's the most well-done path to reflect the quality one needs to overcome the challenge.


The Path of Carnage is one of traps and losing much HP. You get pelted by arrow trap (6 arrows divided randomly between characters), then a pit trap (the first two in the walking order fall), while the last two one get 4 more arrows. The falling ones can try to grab the wall, despite them being covered in razor-sharp metal blades to slow their fall (damage, loss of fingers and fighting prowess...) before falling in a sort of barrack, where a drunk barbarian chieftain is offering a challenge -- easy if you accept, if not the whole clan attacks the coward heroes... Then you're confronted to a series of one on one fight with air spirits as you cross a bridge and reach the courtyard, rejoining the other path.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I love that the whaling vessel captain is just casually hunting THE WORLD SERPENT, who will fight Thor to the death at Ragnarok.

—

Re: ranged attacks - is there the possibility for a character to be really good at these? Maybe items we bypassed because melee is cooler?

WIthout correct items, you just do 1d6+1 at most which is less and less useful as we progress into the series. On the other hand, there are magic items we bypassed that allow you to apply full damage with ranged attack. In which case, the strategy of having Trixie tanking by defending while the Warrior pelts foes with missiles becomes even better. But we either didn't go there (Vantery's tower) or chose another path (in the final castle).

Or it’s more like Lone Wolf where every once in a while You Have A Bow And Choose To Use It, but ranged attacks aren’t really the book’s forté.

I don't remember an instance of someone doing something cool with bow and arrow.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

And the next step in our adventure is here.