[LP] Lesser-Known Gamebooks: He-Man and the Memory Stone!

Stories about games that you run and/or have played in.

Moderator: Moderators

SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

The pathway is very narrow and dangerous. Several times parts of it collapse, sending rocks spinning down into the grey land below.

If He-Man wants to continue on the path, turn to 90.
If he wants to climb down the vines, turn to 59.
If he climbs down using the rock itself, turn to 72.
Should we heed that as a danger warning sign?
Silent Wayfarer
Knight-Baron
Posts: 898
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:35 am

Post by Silent Wayfarer »

Yeah, use the rock instead.
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
User avatar
Darth Rabbitt
Overlord
Posts: 8869
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:31 pm
Location: In "In The Trenches," mostly.
Contact:

Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Use the rock.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

We go back to rock-climbing:
The crumbly rock becomes firmer, less eaten away by weather and the effects of plant roots. He-Man soon touches the bottom, relieved to have his feet firmly on the ground again.
Continuing on the path leads to one of the books very few "insta-fail" bad endings. Congrats for avoiding it.
A thick layer of ash-grey soil covers this scorched land. Many volcanoes erupt boiling lava and pits of oily, evil-smelling liquids cover the landscape.

He-Man walks towards the spiral of dark smoke that marks the position of Snake Mountain.

Roll the die. If you get a 1, 2 or 3, turn to 9.
If you get a 4, 5 or 6, turn to 32.
EDIT: Forgot to type this: we rolled a 2.
Image

As He-Man passes a large bubbling crater, the sorceress Evil-Lyn jumps down beside him. Before he has a chance to react, she casts
a strong spell upon him.

The spell is powered by a question and only the correct answer to that question will allow He-Man to escape unharmed.

What was the chief Pygmy wearing?

If you think he was wearing a bone necklace, turn to 54.
If you think he was wearing a cloak, turn to 64.
That was.....random. Especially since it's possible not to have met the Pygmies in the jungle.

Fortunately, we HAVE met the Chief Pygmy. Do you remember what he was wearing?

I know I can totally trust you guys not to cheat, right? Right? :biggrin:
Last edited by SGamerz on Tue Aug 05, 2014 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Darth Rabbitt
Overlord
Posts: 8869
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:31 pm
Location: In "In The Trenches," mostly.
Contact:

Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I actually do. It's the bone necklace.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

Bone necklace it is!
The binding power gradually fades away. It has no hold over He-Man any longer. He looks around for Evil-Lyn, but she is nowhere to be seen. He continues towards Snake Mountain.
Another baddie who escaped without us being given the chance to administer some face-stabbing! I guess they're trying to avoid portraying man-on-woman violence in the book here.
In the distance He-Man hears a metallic clanking. A harsh voice shouts, "I have come to destroy you, He-Man!" It is the evil warrior, Trapjaw, stamping through the burnt landscape.

If He-Man wants to call out to Trapjaw, turn to 84.
If he decides to avoid Trapjaw by hiding, turn to 95.
If he wants to try to ambush Trapjaw, turn to 123.
At least we're given an alternative target to vent our face-stabbing urge! How do we want to go about it?
Silent Wayfarer
Knight-Baron
Posts: 898
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:35 am

Post by Silent Wayfarer »

We're heroes, heroes don't ambush anyone, even the bad guy. Call out to him.
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
User avatar
angelfromanotherpin
Overlord
Posts: 9745
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Challenge him!
SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
Image

"l am here, Trapjaw!" He-Man calls out. "l challenge you-to fight! Show yourself !" As if in answer, a flashing bolt of red laser-light explodes close to He-Man. The treacherous Trapjaw is using his armgun.

Roll the die and score, using the table below, until you get a 6.
1 - He-Man is hit by Trapjaw's laser. Subtract 2 Life Points.
2 - He-Mau is wounded by a laser bolt. Subtract 1 Life Point.
3 - He-Man jumps aside as a bolt lands where he was standing.
4 - He-Man uses his magic shield to deflect a bolt back at Trapjaw. Add 1 to your next roll.
5 - He-Man knocks a laser bolt aside with the Power Blade. Add 1 to your next roll.
6 - He-Man creeps up behind Trapjaw and damages his armgun so that he cannot fire its deadly bolts. The two warriors, one good, one evil, begin their hand to hand combat. Turn to 149.
READY......FIGHT!
Die roll: 1! We get blasted for 2 Life Points!
Die roll: 5! We deflect the next bolt to one side with our sword.
Die roll: 2 (+1) = 3! We narrowly dodge the next bolt!
Die roll: 3 (+1) = 4! We deflect another bolt, this time with our shield.
Die roll: 4 (+1) = 5! Another bolt deflected!
Die roll: 6! Finally, we can get on the offensive!
Choosing to ambush Trapjaw will skip this combat and bring us straight to the hand-to-hand fight.
Trapjaw fights furiously, but without his laser gun, he knows he cannot beat He-Man.

Roll the die and score, using the table below, until you get a 6.
1 - He-Man is bitten by Trapjaw's metal teeth. Subtract 1 Life Points.
2 - He-Mau is wounded by Trapjaw. Subtract 1 Life Point.
3 - He-Man just avoid Trapjaw's bite.
4 - Trapjaw is wounded by the Power Blade. Add 1 to your next roll.
5 - Trapjaw is badly wounded by the Power Blade. Add 2 to your next roll.
6 - He-Man knocks out Trapjaw...Clang! Turn to 112.
Yes, there literally is a "Clang" sound effect listed in the table.

ROUND 2......FIGHT!
Die roll: 1! Ouch....let's hope he doesn't have rabies.
Die roll: 2! We're wounded again, this time by.....something.
Die roll: 6! CLANG!
Leaving Trapjaw lying unconscious in the grey dust, He-Man heads towards Snake Mountain. It looks like a red smear in the distance.
And another one bites the dust......hey, that sounds strangely appropriate in this scenario!

This has been He-Man's most costly fight thus far, with Trapjaw managing to take 4 Life Points off us and leaving us at 6 (half of our original total).
As Snake Mountain looms closer and closer, He-Man realizes that he's never going to get inside without being seen. Over to one side he notices a dark hole in the ground. Perhaps he can approach Skeletor's hideout using the many tunnels and crawlways carved out by Skelcons and other creatures over the centuries?

If he approaches the dark hole turn to 14.
If he wishes to continue walking boldly towards Snake Mountain, turn to 22.
If he wants to use the many hollows and craters to creep up the mountainside unobserved, turn to 34.
Heroic frontal assault? Stealth mode? Penetrate a hole?


He-Man's current Life Points: 12 11 10 6.
Laertes
Duke
Posts: 1021
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 4:09 pm
Location: The Mother of Cities

Post by Laertes »

Heroic full frontal!
User avatar
angelfromanotherpin
Overlord
Posts: 9745
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Stealth seems pointless because Skeletor can always scry on us anyway, and using the tunnels seems like a good way to get horribly lost. Walk boldly!
User avatar
Darth Rabbitt
Overlord
Posts: 8869
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:31 pm
Location: In "In The Trenches," mostly.
Contact:

Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Strut boldly towards Snake Mountain. Haters gonna hate.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

Bravely forward!
He-Man continues to walk boldly towards SNake Mountain, unafraid of what might happen to him.

Roll the die. If you get a 1, 2 or 3, turn to 46.
If you get a 4, 5 or 6, turn to 57.
We roll a 4.
But it really doesn't matter what we score here.....padding section ahead!
Boldly He-Man strides towards Skeletor's evil stronghold. Closer and closer he walks, until suddenly.....
Yeah, obvious filler section is obvious.
In the distance He-Man hears a metallic voice, booming out of Snake Mountain. If is the evil spirit who has seen He-Man approaching. "All Skelcon guards report to battle stations!" rings out the terrible voice. "He-Man is approaching. Fire all laser guns!"

Bolts of red laser light crash into the scorched ground near He-Man. Suddenly the whole area collapses. A cheer erupts from the evil Skelcons, for they think that He-Man is destroyed.

But they are wrong. He-Man is sitting in piles of soft ash in a deep hole. A dark tunnel leads towards Snake Mountain and brushing himself down, He-Man heads towards it.
They really should leave all that laser gun stuff to Trapjaw. Granted, things didn't go too well for him either, but at least he took 2 Life Points off us by himself. Now they've wasted all that artillary and He-Man didn't even get scratched.
The tunnel is low and dark, lit only by the occasional glowing rock. Sometimes the roof forces He-Man to crouch low. At other times it soars upwards to a great height. It was through one of tehse thin areas that He-Man fell into the tunnel. In the distance he thinks he can hear the faint sound of hammering, but it may be his imagination.
This is actrually a converging point for most of the routes in the final stage of this book....but not all of them. Although most routes into Snake Mountain end up with He-Man falling into some hole and making his way underground into Snake Mountain like we're about to do here, there actually is a way to enter via the front door without the enemy notcing us at all....although that is ironically the longer and harder route compared to being discovered and blasted into the underground caverns.
Suddenly the faint hammering is replaced by a much louder noise. It is the sound of grinding or burrowing. Roll the die. If you get a 1, 2 or 3, turn to 44. If you get a 4, 5 or 6, turn to 52.
Die roll: 1!
The sound becomes much louder as the tunnel wall begins to crumble away. Out comes a vast worm-like creature, covered with heavy, faintly-glowing arnmour plating and horns.

If He-Man wants to remain still and let it pass, turn to 60.
If he wants to attack it, turn to 74.
Attack or not?
User avatar
Darth Rabbitt
Overlord
Posts: 8869
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:31 pm
Location: In "In The Trenches," mostly.
Contact:

Post by Darth Rabbitt »

He-Man's hurt enough that he might want to avoid fighting the giant worm.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
Silent Wayfarer
Knight-Baron
Posts: 898
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:35 am

Post by Silent Wayfarer »

If we're given the chance to spare it, I think we should spare it. Besides, He-man probably respects a fellow penetrator when he sees one.
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

Silent Wayfarer wrote:Besides, He-man probably respects a fellow penetrator when he sees one.
Too bad we missed meeting another even cooler fellow penetrator of the depths because we rolled a low number. (More on that when the playthrough is finished)
He-Man freezes, not with fear but through caution. The creature has done him no harm yet. The Giant Armoured Worm eventually grinds its way through to the other side of the tunnel and disappears, back into its own dark world. Carefully He-Man digs his way through the tunnel and continues on his journey.
Attacking the worm won't lead to an actual combat, but the worm will squirt some burning gas at us before it retreats and take 1 Life Point off us, so avoiding violence is the right option.
He-Man hurries through the dark tunnel towards Snake Mountain. He knows that every second counts. After what seems like an age, he begins to hear the sounds of mining more clearly. Soon he is rushing deeper and deeper into the mines.
Yeah, no one penetrates the depths like He-Man does!
The Skelcons drop their mining tools and flee in terror at the sight of He-Man. Without Skeletor to drive them on, they are lazy and cowardly. At last He-Man reaches the deepest part of the mine and enters the small chamber.
.......and the Big Boss' headquarters turns out to be the least dangerous part of this book.
The memory-draining stone lies in the centre of of the chamber. He-Man approaches it carefully. Suddenly there is a flash, and out of a cloud of dark green, foul-smelling smoke steps Skeletor, Lord of Destruction.

"So, He-Man, you have come this far! But you will go no further. Prepare to die!" he laughs.
BOSS FIGHT!
Image

Skeletor raises his Havoc Staff. He-Man stands ready with the Power Blade drawn and shining with energy.

Roll the die and score, using the table below, until you get a 6.
1 - Skeletor blasts He-Man with his Havoc Staff. Subtract 2 Life Points.
2 - SKeletor smashes He-Man with his fist. Subtract 1 Life Point.
3 - He-Man blocks the Havoc Staff with his magic shield.
4 - He-Man punches Skeletor and wounds him. Add 1 to your next roll.
5 - He-Man knocks Skeletor's Havic Staff from his hand. Add 2 to your next roll.
6 - He-Man knocks Skeletor unconscious with a blow from the mighty Power Blade. Turn to 150.
Well, at least this time the weapons actually hurt more than the punches.

FIGHT!
Die roll: 1! We take a blast from the staff for 2 Life Points (down to 4!)
Die roll: 5! We dis-arm Skeletor....at least temporarily.
Die roll: 1 again! But this time we get to add 2 and get 3.....which makes sense since Skeletor has to spend time picking up his staff, giving us time to block his attack!
Die roll: 1 (WTH!) - We get blasted again! (down to 2 Life Points)
Die roll: 3! We blocked the next one, probably saving He-Mans Life (literally).
Die roll: 3! Blocked again!
Die roll: 3 again (?!). One more time and I'm switching to anther virtual dice generator.
Die roll: 2! Down to our last Life Point!
Die roll: 5! We manage to dis-arm him again.
Die roll 4 (+2) = 6! We finally get in a knockout blow while he's busy trying to pick up his staff!

That was real close!
With Skeletor lying unconscious on the floor of the chamber, He-Man rushes across to the small grey stone that has caused all this trouble. Raising the Power Blade high above his head, he then brings its magic edge slicing down into it.

The pebble bursts into hundreds of pieces and Man-at-Arms' memory goes back to him over the many miles.

Back at Castle Grayskull, Man-at-Arms suddenly looks up. "My memory!" he shouts suddenly. "It has returned! He-Man must have conquered Skeletor at last!"

Quickly Man-at-Arms sets about repairing and recharging the machines that have remained idle for so long. Armed with the newly-working energy weapons they make Skeletor's band of evil followers turn tail and flee. Foul creatures scatter into the countryside, as bright blue laser beams flash towards them from the castle.

When all is quiet once more, Man-at-Arms and Teela ride out in Battle Ram to rescue He-Man from Snake Mountain. They pick him up from the very top of the mountain, where he stands in triumph.

The dark and deadly side of Eternia is, for the moment, defeated. The Masters of the Universe are one step closer to the total destruction of all that is evil.
No tearful reunion with Kitty? I'm disappointed.

Anyway, yes, this is the end of this short adventure (actually took longer than I expected due to the unexpected change in my schedule last week forcing me to cut down my update frequency). Once again, thanks to everyone who participated, and I hope you all had fun!

As before I will be posting some of the stuff we missed on this playthrough tomorrow (there probably won't be too much this time, since this book is much shorter than the last one I ran. As you can see, there are only 150 sections total), and once again any specific questions/request from players are welcome!
Mr Shine
Knight-Baron
Posts: 740
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:02 pm

Post by Mr Shine »

Does He-Man actually die, if Life Points reach 0? As opposed to being knocked unconcious long enough to fail the quest.
SGamerz
King
Posts: 6293
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:45 am

Post by SGamerz »

Mr Shine wrote:Does He-Man actually die, if Life Points reach 0? As opposed to being knocked unconcious long enough to fail the quest.
Nope.

Other than the successful ending, there are 3 "Bad" endings in the book. One of them (section 92) is listed in the Life Points table and serves as the generic bad ending that the player has to turn to if his Life Point hits 0. In that section, He-Man wakes up in Castle Grayskull, where Stratos tells him that he followed he man and saved him before he was killed.

In each of the bad ending, the player is basically told something along the lines of "Man-at-Arms still need his memory back, so if you want to make another attempt, turn back to 1 and learn from your mistakes (even though the "mistake" could simply have been rolling a bunch of low numbers during combat).

It is pretty predictable/expected that He-Man isn't really going to die, but what I don't like about 2 of those bad endings is the revelation that other heroes from Castle Grayskull have been following He-Man in case he messed up. As mentioned, Stratos will save He-Man in the generic bad ending (which you will also go to if you ignored the blatant warning and blundered into Beast-Man's trap). If He-Man had fallen off the cliff earlier (either because he decided to use the creepers or followed the narrow dangerous pathway instead of sticking to rock climbing), he will again wake up in Castle Grayskull, where Teela will tell him that not one but THREE heroes went after him (Stratos, Zoar and Buzz-Off) in time to save him from an otherwise fatal fall. If Castle Grayskull could spare all those guys (weren't they needed to defend it from "constant attacks"?), then why the hell did He-Man go alone in the first place? He could have used a couple of companions on the way. I can accept Stratos making a brief trip to bring him food and water, but following him secretly to play guardian angel doesn't really make sense.

The only bad ending where He-Man actually makes it back to the castle by himself if if he had gotten bitten by the Monkey-Spider, which poisons him and forces him to go back for cure. Actually, even here he isn't alone, since Battle-Cat is still with him in this scenario, so he carries He-Man back.

There really isn't a lot of the book left to bring up. As noted by Laertes, the book is split up into different stages of biospheres. The initial encounter with Beast-Man could have led to an unnecessary combat (but one that is relatively easier than most), and as mentioned, running into the trap will lead to insta-fail. The branching paths in the desert is basically choosing between Thunder Horse and Battle-Cat, and either way neither stays with you after that stage. There is a possible but easily-avoided encounter with a man-eating giant Beetle if we went with Thunder Horse, but otherwise it's mostly uneventful.

For the jungle stage, most of the paths ultimately lead to the fight with Whiplash and being guided out of it by the Pygmies (although we got to them rather early), but there was also a longer path where we avoid them and make it out on our own. There would be more encounters along the path, including having to struggle our way out of quicksand (that is treated the same way as a regular combat), a possible fight with Webster, and having to cut our way through some living vines (another combat-like encounter).

The cliff as mentioned was railroady, the only way to safely get down is via rock climbing, although there will be multiple warnings from the texts if you used the creepers before they let you fall and go to the bad ending.

In the last volcanic stage, the encounter with Trapjaw is unavoidable, but trying to hide from him will lead to us falling down a hole and continuing towards Snake Mountain underground....just like we did after the Skelcons blasted us down with poorly-aimed lasers. The encounter with Evil-Lyn was random, but the alternative path leads to us falling down another hole (yes, lots of them in this book) but this is the only time where we would be able to choose not to take the underground shortcut and instead try to climb out of the hole and continue.

Failing to answer Evil-Lyn's riddle-spell will lead to having 2 Life Points burnt off us before Buzz-Off comes to our rescue.

Again as mentioned before, most of the routes into Snake Mountain will drop us into the underground tunnel. If we had rolled a higher number, we would encounter a Giant Talking Mole instead of the worm, who will then befriend us and hlep us dig a way to Skeletor's lair. Apparently, he literally eats Skelcons for breakfast, and will chase off all the Skelcons for us (not that it really matters, since the Skelcons will run from us anyway if we made it there without the mole).

It's possible to enter Snake Mountain without falling into the underground shortcut, but that is, as mentioned, by far the longer route. If we'd chosen to be stealthy, we'd have had a 5 in 6 chance of making it to the entrance without being seen. Then we'd get the chance to cross the rope-bridge, roll the die for an encounter with the giant snake guarding it, before making it to the door, where we'll have to answer a simple coded riddle that is kind of like the random Evil-Lyn's riddle asking for information about an earlier encounter (in this case the colour of the giant snake). After that we'll have to navigate a small maze before we finally make it to the chamber with the memory stone (and the encounter with Skeletor).

The maze isn't too hard to navigate, since there are pretty obvious clues about which way you should go after the first couple of Left/Right/Middle blind choices, so it shouldn't take long even for a young reader to get out of it, but like I said, it's still much more time-consuming than just letting yourself get blasted down into the underground shortcut. :)

That's pretty much it for this book that I can remember.

I'll be taking a short hiatus (should be a week or less) before I come back with my next Fighting Fantasy LP thread. I'll probably be going with the book that got the second-highest votes in my poll thread (#40 - Dead of Night). See you guys then! :)
Last edited by SGamerz on Fri Aug 08, 2014 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Post Reply