[Fighting Fantasy] Caverns of the Snow Witch
- Thread starter Whizbang Dustyboots
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I would get in touch with Steve Jackson Games. I suspect that's the kind of thing they could negotiate the rights to do when they start republishing these books stateside next year.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
We're riding north toward the Icefinger Mountains.
It's cold, brutally so, but so far, this is an easy job, guarding Big Jim Sun's trading caravan. We're bringing southern goods -- cloth, utensils, weapons, salted meat, spices, tea -- to the northern outposts, where they'll be traded for furs and carved mammoth tusks. The bandits will be on us when we head south, after we've done the hard work of bringing mammoth ivory out of the eternally snow-covered mountains.
I'm on point, walking ahead of six carts across a frozen lake. On the far side is a trading post where the Northmen should be waiting for us. I prod the ice periodically with my sword to see if it'll hold us, but that's mostly just to show Jim I'm earning my keep on this stretch of the job.
And then a hunting horn sounds.
I hustle back to the carts, where Big Jim -- and he is big, so big that it speaks to how serious a danger the bandits are if he feels like he needs to hire me -- who's sitting next to the driver of one of the carts, smoking his pipe and scanning the horizon.
"Go check the outpost and be quick about it. There could be trouble."
I go as fast as I can across the ice and snow, but it still takes about two more hours to arrive at the outpost.
There's been a massacre. The snow is soaked red with the blood of six dead Northmen, bodies slashed open, their axes dropped in the snow where they fell. Their attacker is nowhere to be seen but there are a creature's enormous footprints.
It takes me another hour to get back to Big Jim, the sun setting over the wintery landscape as we meet back up again.
Jim orders the carts to be circled for protection overnight, a large bonfire in the center.
Sitting quietly, our backs to the fire, looking out into the darkness, Big Jim and I share a smoke.
"This beast will ruin me if he drives off or kills all the Northmen; all my money is tied up in this caravan," he says, with a beard so wild and thick, he looks half-beast himself. "Will you find it and kill it for me, Lucky?"
"I was hired to protect you from bandits," I reply. "A beast that can kill six men single-handedly will cost you extra."
Jim scowls and his beard moves as he clenches his jaw.
"How much extra?"
"Another 50 gold pieces should do it."
If we were back home, he'd strike me and damn me for a thief. But up here, on the ice, he has little choice. Still, it takes a long time before he gives me a sharp nod.
I don't sleep much. My mind is racing with what's required to hunt such a creature and how soon its tracks will be lost to new snowfall. And whether I've got a better chance at survival than six armed Northmen.
I'm up with the first light of dawn. I nudge Big Jim with the toe of my boot.
"I'm heading out. I hope to be back before sundown."
I nod to the guard on watch as I head back toward the outpost.
It's cold, brutally so, but so far, this is an easy job, guarding Big Jim Sun's trading caravan. We're bringing southern goods -- cloth, utensils, weapons, salted meat, spices, tea -- to the northern outposts, where they'll be traded for furs and carved mammoth tusks. The bandits will be on us when we head south, after we've done the hard work of bringing mammoth ivory out of the eternally snow-covered mountains.
I'm on point, walking ahead of six carts across a frozen lake. On the far side is a trading post where the Northmen should be waiting for us. I prod the ice periodically with my sword to see if it'll hold us, but that's mostly just to show Jim I'm earning my keep on this stretch of the job.
And then a hunting horn sounds.
I hustle back to the carts, where Big Jim -- and he is big, so big that it speaks to how serious a danger the bandits are if he feels like he needs to hire me -- who's sitting next to the driver of one of the carts, smoking his pipe and scanning the horizon.
"Go check the outpost and be quick about it. There could be trouble."
I go as fast as I can across the ice and snow, but it still takes about two more hours to arrive at the outpost.
There's been a massacre. The snow is soaked red with the blood of six dead Northmen, bodies slashed open, their axes dropped in the snow where they fell. Their attacker is nowhere to be seen but there are a creature's enormous footprints.
It takes me another hour to get back to Big Jim, the sun setting over the wintery landscape as we meet back up again.
Jim orders the carts to be circled for protection overnight, a large bonfire in the center.
Sitting quietly, our backs to the fire, looking out into the darkness, Big Jim and I share a smoke.
"This beast will ruin me if he drives off or kills all the Northmen; all my money is tied up in this caravan," he says, with a beard so wild and thick, he looks half-beast himself. "Will you find it and kill it for me, Lucky?"
"I was hired to protect you from bandits," I reply. "A beast that can kill six men single-handedly will cost you extra."
Jim scowls and his beard moves as he clenches his jaw.
"How much extra?"
"Another 50 gold pieces should do it."
If we were back home, he'd strike me and damn me for a thief. But up here, on the ice, he has little choice. Still, it takes a long time before he gives me a sharp nod.
I don't sleep much. My mind is racing with what's required to hunt such a creature and how soon its tracks will be lost to new snowfall. And whether I've got a better chance at survival than six armed Northmen.
I'm up with the first light of dawn. I nudge Big Jim with the toe of my boot.
"I'm heading out. I hope to be back before sundown."
I nod to the guard on watch as I head back toward the outpost.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
By the time I get back to the outpost, it's as I feared.
Snow covers the bodies and the beast's tracks both. Blowing snow and fog makes it hard to see where I'm going, but something tells me this creature came down from the Icefingers looming above me.
The climb is hard, with soft snow causing me to sink up to my knees.
Then the snow falls away as I'm faced with a crevasse crossed by an ice bridge.
((Cross the crevasse by the ice bridge: Turn to 335))
((Walk around the crevasse: Turn to 310))
Snow covers the bodies and the beast's tracks both. Blowing snow and fog makes it hard to see where I'm going, but something tells me this creature came down from the Icefingers looming above me.
The climb is hard, with soft snow causing me to sink up to my knees.
Then the snow falls away as I'm faced with a crevasse crossed by an ice bridge.
((Cross the crevasse by the ice bridge: Turn to 335))
((Walk around the crevasse: Turn to 310))
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
"Well, they call you 'Lucky,'" I sigh, then hold my breath as I step out onto the bridge.
((Test my luck: I roll a 5, which is under my current score of 12, so I pass. I also lower my current luck score to 11.))
((Stamina 15/15, Skill 9/9, Luck 11/12, Potion of Fortune and 10 provisions in my backpack. I also have leather armor and my sword.))
((Test my luck: I roll a 5, which is under my current score of 12, so I pass. I also lower my current luck score to 11.))
((Stamina 15/15, Skill 9/9, Luck 11/12, Potion of Fortune and 10 provisions in my backpack. I also have leather armor and my sword.))
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I carefully cross the bridge and continue walking through the snow on the far side.
Not to divert this thread... thanks for your idea, that I used as a test for AI gamebook discussed in another thread.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The blowing snow comes at me almost horizontally. And then I hear it, over the sound of the wind -- the howl of wolves.
A a thin sheath of ice cracks as I pull my sword from its scabbard.
Two enormous wolves appear in the storm, completely white except for their red eyes. One leaps at me and the battle is joined.
((Stamina 15/15, Skill 9/9, Luck 11/12, Potion of Fortune and 10 provisions in my backpack. I also have leather armor and my sword.))
((Snow Wolf 1: Stamina 7/7, Skill 6))
((I roll a 3, giving me a 12. The wolf rolls a 10, giving him a 16, hitting me and doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 7, giving me a 15. The wolf rolls a 3, giving him a 9, so I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 9, giving me an 18. The wolf rolls an 8, giving him a 14. I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 7, giving me a 16. The wolf rolls a 3, giving him a 9. I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll an 8, giving me a 17. The wolf rolls a 10, giving him a 16. I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage and finishing him off.))
((Snow Wolf 2: Stamina 7/7, Skill 6))
((I roll a 3, giving me a 12. The wolf rolls a 3, giving her a 9. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 5, giving me a 14. The wolf rolls a 4, giving her a 10. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll an 8, giving me a 17. The wolf rolls a 4, giving her a 10. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll an 11, giving me a 20. The wolf rolls a 6, giving her a 12. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage, finishing her off.))
A a thin sheath of ice cracks as I pull my sword from its scabbard.
Two enormous wolves appear in the storm, completely white except for their red eyes. One leaps at me and the battle is joined.
((Stamina 15/15, Skill 9/9, Luck 11/12, Potion of Fortune and 10 provisions in my backpack. I also have leather armor and my sword.))
((Snow Wolf 1: Stamina 7/7, Skill 6))
((I roll a 3, giving me a 12. The wolf rolls a 10, giving him a 16, hitting me and doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 7, giving me a 15. The wolf rolls a 3, giving him a 9, so I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 9, giving me an 18. The wolf rolls an 8, giving him a 14. I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 7, giving me a 16. The wolf rolls a 3, giving him a 9. I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll an 8, giving me a 17. The wolf rolls a 10, giving him a 16. I hit him, doing 2 Stamina damage and finishing him off.))
((Snow Wolf 2: Stamina 7/7, Skill 6))
((I roll a 3, giving me a 12. The wolf rolls a 3, giving her a 9. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll a 5, giving me a 14. The wolf rolls a 4, giving her a 10. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll an 8, giving me a 17. The wolf rolls a 4, giving her a 10. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage.))
((I roll an 11, giving me a 20. The wolf rolls a 6, giving her a 12. I hit her, doing 2 Stamina damage, finishing her off.))
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I step over the body of the wolves, momentarily blazing with the heat of the exertion. But soon enough, I'm freezing again, climbing uphill into the swirling snow.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The snow begins to fall more heavily, swirling in a strong wind. A blizzard.
((Use your sword to dig a shelter in the snow, turn to 281.))
((Press on, turn to 229))
((Use your sword to dig a shelter in the snow, turn to 281.))
((Press on, turn to 229))
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