[Fighting Fantasy] Bloodsword v2

[Jfdlsjfd]

After our thorough search of the camp, we're startled by the death throes of the bard we just played some music with earlier. I guess we were too focused on counting the gold and determining which of the girls looked better with the new cape that Salvia couldn't spare six seconds to cast her Healing spell on him. Since we had two sections without a fight, she had, on the other hand, time to heal Winny of her nasty wound, BTW.

When we're recover for our startled state, we manage to reach him as he tries to staunch blood flowing from a gashing wound in his belly. He is still alive. We're certainly going to cast, now, the Healing spell, aren't we?

At section 335, we're regaled with his dying speech. He tells us, with the specific information that his speech is often stopped by blood bubbling at his lips, so his voice trails off often, "Too old, I've grown too old for this. I've been doing this kind of thing for too long". At this point, he stares up to us and "struggles to a half-sitting position". Obviously, with no help to get gotten from us. Then he reaches painfully to his haversack (if he had had his arms cut off we would be suggesting to try to open it with his teeth?). He struggles to search something into it. We could tell him that he can spare the effort since we will end up looting his body anyway. He recovers from it a magnificent scabbard protected by a rich velvet cloth that he proceeds with staining with the blood flowing from his wounds as he hands the scabbard to us.

We take time marveling at the work, apreciating the craft of the jeweler who covered the scabbard in beaten gold and jewels that make it look ablaze despite being lit only by the Blue Moon (one of the 5 spirits of the True Magi that floats in the sky over Krarth).

At this point, he resumes his speech, warning us that said spirits are gaining in power, and he tasks us to recover the Blood Sword (take a shot). He doesn't know where the other pieces are but the Warlock-King has the hilt, and that we'll be tracked for the scabbard until death or success of our mission. He says so in many, many words.

Can we find the time to say "CURE LIGHT WOUNDS"? No. Apply Checkhov's healing balm we bought like 10 sections ago? No. Open our Snuff-Box to get back 1d6 HP? No. He's now beyong healing by any means. Too bad we arrived a second too late.

We suddenly notice that he's much older than we thought he was. He's also much deader.

The book asks us what do we want to do. I'd say "resume the looting" but the choices are limited to rest for the night in the midst of a grey fog that is now invading the clearing (142) or resume walking immediately (363).

 

[gban007]

Certainly a level of railroading i wouldn't enjoy in a DM run campaign, but I i don't mind too mych in gamebooks

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Certainly a level of railroading i wouldn't enjoy in a DM run campaign, but I i don't mind too mych in gamebooks

The books aknowledge the fact that the quest is dumped on us by fate. It emphasize that if we, at any point, lose the scabbard from our party's inventory, we must immediately go to a section where our death is described as the True Magi are now free to cast a spell of on us that traps us in their pocket dimension for eternity, no save, now that we are no longer protected from their wrath by the magical scabbard.

At least we had a time to bond with the questgiver before his death.

I agree with you that it's not that bad in gamebooks.

 

[Joshua Randall]

We were in a whimsical Jack Vance world where merchants use a nightly game of checkers to determine bedtime order, which also determines who is best rested to hawk his wares tomorrow and thereby lord it over the other merchants with erudite insults.

Then suddenly we’re in murderhobo land where there is a spray of bright red Hammer Horror blood and when we’re done, a bunch of people are dead.

Then we’re in Monty Python land where the mortally wounded NPC takes 30 minutes to describe the McGuffin.

This book needs to make up its mind what tone it’s going for!

—

So let me get this straight: a magical scabbard protects us from eeeeeevil star wizards, and if we ever don’t have the scabbard, they stick us in the Phantom Zone alongside the Kryptonians?

—

rest for the night in the midst of a grey fog that is now invading the clearing

Nothing good ever comes from fog.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

So let me get this straight: a magical scabbard protects us from eeeeeevil star wizards, and if we ever don’t have the scabbard, they stick us in the Phantom Zone alongside the Kryptonians?

That's basically it. The scabbard protects us, and apparently, owning it means we are on our way to get the sword that is supposed to rest in it, therefore once we've owned it, the star wizards will want to kill us, even if we didn't do anything to actively search for the sword. Also, it protects us from their magic, somehow.

Nothing good ever comes from fog.

Also, despite the book not reminding us of this fact, we'd set camp atop a pile of corpses and severed limbs, surrounded by grieving and wailing families. Let's get away. Before the killer fog takes care of said families.
The book will try to go for a bleak adventure tone, but sometimes, fail. Also, magic is very very Vancian, and the Faltyn is totally a Sandestin, including their stubborn behaviour. To showcase it, I'll never pass on the opportunity to summon a Faltyn going forward.

Fearing that the evening might be a bad omen, we decide to pack up and go on our way outside of the clearing. As we stroll through the forest (at this point, we don't know where we're headed for, nor what we were supposed to do before the quest was dumped on us, so I guess we decided to walk in a random direction hoping to reach the Kingdom of Wyrd) we notice that the Blue Moon is high in the Krarthian sky. After a few hours, we reach another clearing and take a little rest. We stare at the Blue Moon and we think... it stares back at us. Which is an optical illusion when speaking of the true Moon, but in this case, the Blue Moon is a star wizard that is actually looking at us. It produces a blue fleckle of light that is falling earthward. Or, more exactly, us-ward.

It grows in size and as it approaches, a whistling sound becomes audible. I guess the scabbard protects us from the Magi's spells, but not their meteors.


Applying our new resolution, we summon a Faltyn for help. It appears... and tells us, his voice filled with terror, that he won't take the risk to act in our defence against the True Magi and recommands fleeing. Then he disappears instead of bargaining for the price of his help.


We're left with the option of calling it back for further explanation (remember, we're targetted by an asteroid?) or flee. This we do, neatly avoiding the asteroid. Since convection doesn't exist, except when it does, we can safely bet that no energy will be released by the impact of an asteroid travelling at tremendous speed from the sky and crashing 30 meters away from us, so we safely witness the Tungunska event from the safety of the bushes coverage.

The blue flare explodes with tremendous violence and vaporizes everything in a few centimeters radius. The thing from space is a black egg, from which emerges a hunching, evil, dark silhouette, with two glowing blue eyes starring at us. It seems to be searching from us.

We're offered to fire arrows at it, exorcises it or destroy it with a spell. Since we've in our party a magic user whose power can rival the gods themselves (as we'll see in a later book), this seems to be the most reasonable course of action.

On the minus side, using our magical powers attracts the attention of the creature, who strides toward us. On the plus side, we get 3 rounds to do some spellcasting. It has a psychic ability of 6, an AR of 1 and 30 HP. We could reasonably blast it with Nemesis Bolt (average damage 31.5) but we're told to go to another section if we Enthrall the creature. It could prove useful to interrogate it... Let's try it... We call Servile Enthrallment to memory... then we try to cast it on the second round and fail (11+5=16), then retry on the third round and succeed (9+3=12), while the creature fails its saving throw (7).

We stop the creature in its track, and we know that we won't be able to control it for a long time as there is another power trying to take back control over it. Let me guess, the Blue Magus? It proclaims to be a faithful servant of the True Magus (his name being Tor, the great-(...)-great-grandfather of the current Magus Tor), a trusted servant at the time of the Blasting... He asks us for the scabbard so he can peacefully depart. We don't trust him and orders him to off itself.

Since there is no little benefit, we notice as his body decomposes that his eyes are two glowing blue jewels. They might have value, so we pocket them and continue on our way.

After a long time of walking, possibly the whole night, we reach a settlement, with an inn. Since we've been walking without sleep for a day and a night, and possibly part of day, there is nothing wrong with making a stop. We're told that a room is 1 gp and meal is 1 gp. We can afford 2 gp (as instructed by the text... I'd say we should deduct 8 gp since there are four of us, but maybe prices are very low in this dislapidated inn in the middle of a bleak village?).

We spend an excellent night in fresh laundered sheets and feast on a roast of lamb, regaining half our lost HP plus 1. Unfortunately, we weren't missing any HP at this point, but the comfort is appreciated by our travelling ladies. Chitchatting on the next day with the "landlord" (is that a correct term for an innkeeper?), we learn that we're in a place called Misdraex and that the nearest town is Port Quanongu toward the east, where boats passage can be hired. Looking at the map provided at the beginning of the book, we can see that we're far at the south of Wyrd.

Taking breakfast, we notice an old knight eating soup in the inn. Old people in inns are, by international convention, always to be spoken to in order to get a sidequest.

We listen to the sad tale of his diminished vigour as he laments that he won't be able to put the Lady in Grey to justice. His name is Varadaxor, he adds, as if it add any relevance to our choice. OF COURSE we're interested in his tale and want to know more about this villainous person. The Lady in Grey is a seductress, and she lured his three brothers to her tower, never to be seen again. He asks us for help with his quest to avenge them. We're asked if there is a Warrior in the party, not if a Warrior wants to speak up, so we turn to 125 where Winny takes an oath to bring the demoness to justice with the help of her companions, as his her duty as a knight. TBH, there is a one in two chance that this old man is just sending people to be eaten by her demonic friend, but I guess he'd have emphasized the beautiful aspect of her personnality rather than the man-eater aspect if it was the case.

So, in we are for this side quest. The knight thanks us, since he had been waiting for 10 years to find someone so cooperative. We all ride toward the tower, passing by peasants and delighting in the knight's stories of his past epic. After a short prayer, we enter the tower and we see a woman in what appears to be a marble throne room...

The woman is totally grey. As in stone grey. And immobile. Which any sane person would describe as "she is a statue, not a person". Yet our knight friends proclaim that the sunlight paralyzes her, and that it's an opportunity to kill her. He runs to her (as we wonder why exactly he needed us since he had all the information needed to remove the threat) but, as he closes in for the coup de grâce, he is also turned to stone (or should we say in a Knight in Grey?).

The Lady telepathically tells us to leave at once, or she'll unleash hell on us. Arguably, we are trespassing, and we entered here with a murderous old pervert... I would also have severe words in this situation. But we can't abandon Varaxador, as Winny would certainly yell at us for three days after that.

So we tell her that we will actually keep wandering around her tower, and she summons the security droids animated pieces of armour to fight us.

Given the situation, it's quite evident that removing the witch will remove the animated armour if she can't concentrate on the animating spell. Since everyone of us acts before the statues...

Trixie moves behind the Lady. Salvia moves at the left of the statue. Winny moves at the south of the statue. Esmeralda casts her Enthralling spell on the statue (AR 4 is strong, so just ordering her to slit her throat will be easier, plus it's the only spell she has in mind since fighting the Black Egg.... I should really take more care of this memorized list.

As a special rule wer'e told that casting any spell at The Lady, we should turn to another section.

Trying to resist the spell, she loses her control over her paralyzing spell and Varaxador cuts her head off. He is overjoyed by his ability to avenge his three brothers and is now ready to leave.

He apparently has reached an age so old he doesn't remember what makes an adventurer.


We proceed to 311 to loot the tower.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Applying our new resolution, we summon a Faltyn for help. It appears... and tells us, his voice filled with terror, that he won't take the risk to act in our defence against the True Magi and recommands fleeing. Then he disappears instead of bargaining for the price of his help.

You’re right — that is EXTREMELY Vancian.

we've in our party a magic user whose power can rival the gods themselves

Hey, that’s my line!

We spend an excellent night in fresh laundered sheets and feast on a roast of lamb,

2 GP ~~STEW~~ LAMB!

The Lady in Grey is a seductress, and she lured his three brothers to her tower, never to be seen again.

Did she lure them to the tower and then turn them into statues? Eat them? (Err, literally.) Make them work in the kitchen washing dishes?

Yet our knight friends proclaim that the sunlight paralyzes her, and that it's an opportunity to kill her.

If only there were some way to prevent sunlight from entering a room. Alas, mankind has never solved this problem.

He apparently has reached an age so old he doesn't remember what makes an adventurer.

He lopped the head off a distracted foe and is now going to rob her home. Sounds like he perfectly remembers how to be an adventurer.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

After searching thoroughly, we find... a secret door behind the marble throne. It helps to have a Trickster with us, because entertainers are extremely good at robbing peoples's homes. I am glad we don't have a lousy Thief with us instead.

We take a stair down and reach the Lady in Grey's appartment. Since they are underground and there is no window, I guess she was WIS 3, as well, since she didn't consider being there during the day.

We arrive in a rich underground place decorated with carvings of people summoning demons. We're disgusted by these unholy illustrations. Esmeralda probably should be taking notes on the rituals instead of being disgusted... there are multiple spells that we've seen being cast and don't know...

She apparently rolled badly on the Find Familiar table since we're seeing a slimey toad demon in the middle of the corridor. We're offered to attack it or talk with him, and since it generally pays to talk (we did it with Echidna, we won't stop now...), let's listen.

He (or is it "It"?) feels her mistress is dead, and regrets still being bound by her spells to remain on this plane of existence. He's willing to tell us which door leads to the LiG's loot, if we answer a riddle:

Sharper than steel,
Softer than doth,
Color of emeralds,
Yet a thing with no value.

The book tells us to write down our answer on a piece of paper before turning to see the answer in section 171, or we can still attack the familiar right away. I love the care taken to ask players to write down the answer so they can't cheat saying they had the right answer... of course they can still cheat but they'll be left with an accusatory note written with the wrong answer burdening their soul.

Anyways, i'll take suggestions on the answer. Note that it doesn't help that I don't know what a doth is.

 

[DesRiv]

"Note that it doesn't help that I don't know what a doth is."

Here, "doth" is badly OCR-d or typeset "cloth" - I rember seeing the reverse in a book about alchemy where they were referring to the philosopher "Berclyaev" who is actually "Berdyaev". So the riddle should read:
Sharper than steel,
Softer than cloth,
Color of emeralds,
Yet a thing with no value.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Envy? Kinda the abstract B.S. riddle answer I would expect from this era.

At some point gamebooks switched from “write down the riddle answer so you can feel guilty when you turn to section NNN and then proceed anyway, you filthy liar!” To riddles whose answer is a number.

Then some of those math problems were wrong and either output the wrong number, or were mathematically unsolvable. (There is an infamous example of the latter in one of the later Lone Wolf books.)

And/or, when the books were edited from their native language to American English they often also got cut to be shorter, which meant re-numbering sections, which often left the math riddle pointing nowhere or somewhere nonsensical.

TLDR, don’t do riddles in gamebooks.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I'll go with this litteral suggestion. Let's attack the toad instead of trying to solve his riddle.

Also, don't do riddles in RPG sessions, I'd say. It's always strange that one would protect something or some place with a door that can be bypassed by deducting a password, or number, from the instruction given nearby instead of making it a secret code.

But in the interest of the reader, I looked at the section if you try to give an answer. The book is devious.

It sends you to a section were you're told: "did you answer FIRE ?" if so turn to XXX. If you answered anything else, go to YYY. Then at YYY, it says "OK, the answer was GRASS. If you wrote that on your paper go to ZZZ, if not the toad demon doesn't help you. If you answered fire, you got to fight an angry toad demon because it obviously doesn't match the riddle as nobody would say "fire is green" so if you went to XXX, it's because you wanted to cheat.

Since we've decided to attack him, and we're in a non-combat section, we can ANTICIPATE this time. Esmeralda drops Enthrallment from her mind to focus on Nemesis Bolt. Which she successfully casts (6+5) for a total of 7d6+7 (36) HP. The toad doesn't survive round 1. For the record, it was mostly dangerous because its slime was heavily poisonous, doing up to 5d6 damage.

We then proceed to open the first door. The room's floor is covered in a chess board pattern, with a chest in the middle. Several character can act, inclluding a rare case of needing BOTH a Trickster and a Warrior. Since Winny is sorely lacking in special power, this is an opportunity to showcase their mundane skills. No, I was joking. Of course, we'll rely on casting spells!

First Esmeralda is offered to summon a Faltyn. Which we feel obligated to. He's asking for 5 gold pieces for the first piece of information, and mundane items for further information. Since gold is aplenty and the most we spend at a time was 2, I guess we can spare 5 gp. I am tempted to add two items of little to no value, like the meals we've carrying for weeks now, but who knows when we'll need one extra HP. The Faltyn is disgruntled that we chose the most meager offer and reminds us that our penny-pinching might prove our demise in the future (so Vancian...) It tells us that the chest contains items and that we should take the Orb of Fire. Then we cast Detect Magic and see that the white squares are brimming with destructive energy, so we just have to avoid them. To get extra sure, Salvia can just levitate over the chessboard to the chest, avoiding the potential traps altogether.

We'll never know what was Trixie and Winny's plan. So, so sad.

We get the orb of fire from the chest (which contains also ominously labelled orbs like the "Orb of Death" or the "Orb of Plague" that I wouldn't have taken anyway, and we leave the tower at 406.