[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 11 - Talisman of Death

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 7:39 pm

True dat.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 12:51 am

I'm taking that Darth is willing to change his vote to agreeing with Sirocco's?

The Captain's brow furrows as you tell your story. There is some muttering from her companions, which she silences with a quick gesture. 'We must take you to Hawkana, in Greyguilds. She will want to speak with you. Climb up behind Elvira here, and give me your sword.' She points to one of the younger women. Will you hand over your sword and get on the horse, or refuse, saying that you would rather make your own way?

Do we want to let her touch our weapon?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 12:56 am

Captain D will let the ladies touch his long, hard sword.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:44 am

I had forgotten that one of the warrior-women was hilariously named Elvira.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:55 am

Ladies can handle Captain D's blade for as long as they want!

Elvira helps you up behind her. She appears none too pleased at the prospect of sharing her horse with her and you ride in silence across the wilderness. Lose 2 Skill points until you acquire another sword.

How can she not be pleased at going for a ride with the Master Baiter??

You ride on into the late afternoon, moving from the wilderness to a grey and desolate moor. Ahead, you can see the walls of a large city. A salute is given as you approach the huge arched gate in the fortified wall. The Captain details half her patrol to remain on guard at the gate. Turning to you, she says, "We are taking you to Hawkana - she will want to ask you some questions." Do you want to seize the first opportunity to fight your way out, or go quietly and see what happens?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 6/8 (w/o weapon)
STAMINA 12/22
LUCK 9/10
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Talisman of Death, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (retore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 7:03 am

We've come all this way, let's not...

be a dick.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:25 am

You ride into the City of Learning, Greyguilds, along a street called Moorgate. Many of the buildings are grand multi-storey constructions, built of light grey stone. You see a mixture of people in the streets. There are some people wearing light blue togas who are Sages and professors from the Guilds of Learning. Other groups of young men and women are carrying books and scrolls. You realize that, unarmed as you are, you are no match for these women and have no alternative but to go with them.

Considering our lack of weaponry puts us at SKILL 6, I'd say that's a pretty accurate assumption. Although I highly doubt we'd be a match for them anyway with our sword and our awe-inspiring SKILL of 8.

You are taken along Moorgate, past various food and pottery shops, and then down bustling Store Street. They turn right down Guard Street and come to a halt outside a squat grey building. It is the watch-house. The patrol dismounts, and you are ushered inside.

After a short delay, you are taken into a large office. Inside is a tall, striking, raven-haired woman, dressed in a long black cloak which parts to reveal the polished hilt of a longsword. Her bearing suggests great personal power. She stands and greets you. "I am Hawkana, High Priestess of the Temple of Fell-Kyrinla and Marshal of the Watch. You have been telling some unusual stories." She nods once, and the guards begin to search you. You try to resist but are held tightly, powerless to resist. The Talisman is ripped from its place of concealment and handed to Hawkana. She recognises it immediately, and laughs with rapturous delight. She turns away and says, "I am going to the temple. Throw this fool out into the street." You are hustled out and the door of the watch-house slams shut behind you. You have lost the Talisman! What will you do next:

Go back down Guard Street to Store Street?
Turn down Smith Street?
Walk down the Street of Seven Sins?

That didn't go well.....

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 6/8 (w/o sword)
STAMINA 12/22
LUCK 9/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (retore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:49 am

Walk down Smith Street and hope there's a sword we can steal (since we have no gold).

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 4:04 am

Given that the local religion is clearly evil, I think we're most likely to find virtue on the sin street.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 5:02 am

Good call, let's do that instead.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 12:23 pm

Captain D fears no sin. Given the opportunity he'll probably be more than happy to commit the sins of Greed, Wrath and Lust.

As dusk comes, you walk on down the Street of Seven Sins until you reach the Red Dragon Inn. A thick-set man opens the door and flings a pail of red, stained sawdust across the road. 'Sorry, closed,' he growls at you and slams the door again, Before you can move, you notice the pile of sawdust being disturbed. Footsteps appear, one by one, leading from the sawdust towards you. Will you:

Shout loudly, to attract attention?
Scoop up some dirt and fling it at the footsteps?
Wait to see what happens?

That doesn't seem to bear any connection to any of the 7 Sins....

How do we deal with the Invisible Man?

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 1:08 pm

Fling some dirt at the footsteps. It sounds random enough that it might work.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:18 pm

The dirt you have thrown splatters across an invisible form. It outlines the shape of a thin man-like being, about three metres tall. It moves towards you, almost mechanically, until it towers above you and you realize it is about to attack. You must fight the UNSEEN STALKER.

UNSEEN STALKER SKILL 7 STAMINA 8

If you win, turn to 250.

If we hadn't exposed its form by throwing dirt, it'd have a SKILL of 9, and the fight would probably be almost unwinnable. As it is, we have a chance.

COMBAT LOG:

Unseen Stalker 11, Captain D 12. Stalker is at 6.
Stalker 19, CD 14. Captain D is at 10.
Stalker 14, CD 13. Captain D is at 8.
Stalker 15, CD 15. Tie.
Stalker 15, CD 14. Captain D is at 6.
Stalker 10, CD 18. Stalker is at 4.
Stalker 15, CD 12. Captain D is at 4.
Stalker 10, CD 14. Captain D tests his Luck: (Dice roll: 4 = Lucky!) Stalker is dead!

I'm going to have Captain D gulp down a meal immediately to bring his STAMINA back to 8.

Exhausted from the rigours of the day, you stop and draw breath. The attack by an unseen foe has left you unnerved. You look around, then listen carefully in case another attack should be imminent. As night falls you are thankful to find an empty stable. You go in and curl up in a heap of straw, ready for the night.

You fall into deep slumber and then begin to dream. The Paladin crusader you saw in the Rift appears to you and seems to be giving advice. The shimmering that once limned his sword now surrounds him like a halo. He urges you to enlist the help of the Thieves' Guild, 'though it grieves me to suggest you should have dealings with such people. You may find them in the Red Dragon Inn. They may help to recover the Talisman from Fell-Kyrinla's templ, where it now lies.' Suddenly the dream seems even more real and the Paladin is shouting, 'Awake, awake! You are in grave danger.' You wake; everything is silent. By the light of the moon you see tendrils of mist curling round the door-jamb. The door crashes open. A pall of mist spills into the stable and a warrior clad in full plate armour, as black as night, and wielding a cruelly spiked mace steps forward. He raises his visor. You can see nothing inside the helmet. Your gaze is held. Now it seems you are looking upon the fires of hell. You are filled with despair as the black mace is raised to crush you. You must fight the DEATH-KNIGHT.

DEATH-KNIGHT SKILL 10 STAMINA 15

If your STAMINA is reduced to 6 or below, turn to 193. If you win, turn to 62.

Basically another invisible dude, except this one is wearing armour. This city is apparently full of them.

Given the stats, I'm tempted to just skip straight to 193, since our chance of winning fairly in combat is next to nothing, but let's just see how combat would go....

COMBAT LOG:

Death Knight 20, Captain D 12. Captain D is at 6.

No surprises there....

You are weakening. You realize you are close to death. A sudden blinding light halts the Death-knight's onslaught. To your amazement the Paladin crusader stands before you, bathed in a silvery radiance. The Death-knight steps back, shielding its face. The Paladin's Holy Sword hums through the air and cuts the Death-knight in two. As abruptly as he comes, the Paladin disappears. There is no sign of your adversary but the Holy Sword remains, casting a glow where it lies on the straw. You pick it up, realizing that it is meant for you to use in your struggle against Death. As you grasp it, your wound heal magically. You regain 6 STAMINA points. You may add 1 to your SKILL when using the Holy Sword.

Ok, a bit of a puzzle here.....in many of the early FF books there's often this dilemma where readers are told that their SKILL can never go above their Initial score at the beginning of the book, but then will continually come across magic weapons that apparently increases their SKILL but which they, going strictly by the rules, can't take advantage of unless they've already lost SKILL points earlier.

But if we were to go strictly by the letter here....if we already had a sword we won't gain any SKILL, whereas if we're missing SKILL points due to the loss of our sword, we would regain 1 SKILL point, which means the Holy Sword would be worse than our normal sword, and that obviously doesn't make a lick of sense.

Later FF books usually resolve this by making it clear that magic weapons add to Attack Strength in combats rather than SKILL itself. I think that's the way the sword should be treated here. The book did say that it adds to our SKILL when we're using the sword, which implies that non-combat Skill tests wouldn't count. So our SKILL goes back up to 8, but becomes 9 in combat. Let me know if you would rather stick to the letter and object to having the extra bonus.

Moving on....

You sleep again, until the late morning sun, shining into the stable, wakes you. You stretch and you hand touches something cold in the straw. It is a gold piece, which you decide to pocket before leaving the stable. If you want to go down one of the side-streets that leads to the Street of Seven Sins and the Red Dragon Inn, turn to 57. If you decide against mixing with thieves and try to take the Talisman from the temple on your own, turn to 121.

Does Captain D take to more sin?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 8/8 (9 in combat)
STAMINA 12/22
LUCK 8/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA), Holy Sword (+1 SKILL in combat)
Gold: 1
Provisions: 9 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (restore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)

Dr_Noface · Post by **Dr_Noface** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:56 pm

Taking the temple on all on our own smells of instadeath, Check out the inn.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:29 pm

Taking on the temple all on our own will lead to failure, but in it won't be the end of the game....instead we'll go back in time to one of the "save points" near the beginning of the book. This is one of the main reasons why this book is one f the more lenient ones, as mentioned in my first poll thread, and a player can potentially go through every path in a single playthrough thanks to being resurrected and sent back to those save points repeatedly. As I said earlier, Time almost never runs out in this book.

You take a side street which leads to the Street of Seven Sins and are almost pushed aside by a couple of students in blue togas. They are quarrelling and begin fighting in front of you. It seems one of tem disagrees violently with something the other has said. As they tussle, you notice that the angry young man has dropped a small brass tiger charm. Will you:

Interrupt the quarrel and give the charm back?
Ignore them and go on your way?
Pick up the charm?

Do we want to get involved? Or loot?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:06 am

From what I know of these authors, honesty is the best policy here. It'd probably be an instadeath if this was UK Steve, but it's not.

Dr_Noface · Post by **Dr_Noface** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:24 am

Give the charm back. Too obvious a trap.

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:36 am

Agreed.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 2:30 pm

The angry young man turns to you, a puzzled expression on his face. He thanks you and says, "I don't know why we are quarreling, really." He takes the charm from you and you walk on. Fortune will smile on you for being so honest (gain 1 Luck point). Soon afterwards you hear the fight breaking out again. "You're always making trouble!" shouts the other young man. You leave them to it.

I'll talk more on what happens if we took the charm after this playthrough is over. That's worth a small section by itself.

You come out into the Street of Seven Sins and soon find the Red Dragon Inn. Steps lead downwards and the sound of raucous laughter floats up from the smoke-filled gloom below. You enter and walk over to the only part of the dive where it is light enough to make anything out. Passing tables and stools, you come to the bar, behind which stands the bulky proprietor of the inn. Do you have the brass tiger charm? If you do, turn to Section 11. If you do not, turn to Section 3.

Nope, we're quite free of sin despite just coming up the Street of Seven Sins.

You ask the barman for a mug of ale. While he pours you your drink, your eyes adjust to the gloom and you survey his customers. You have never seen a more disreputable bunch of villainous-looking cut-throats. The barman says, "That will be one Gold Piece." You hand over the money. As you open and close your money-pouch, a dozen pairs of eyes watch closely. The only one who doesn't is a stooped old man, cleaning slops off an empty table.

Will you:

Talk to the barman?

Walk over to the old man?

Approach six surly-looking roguish fellows?

How convenient! Now we know why we picked up exactly 1 gold piece after killing the Death-knight. We didn't even get the option to not spend the gold on drink here.

I hope one of those thieves who are said to be eyeing our money pouch actually manage to steal it. And I hope they enjoy wasting all that that effort for an empty money pouch after that.

Who do we talk to?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 8/8 (9 in combat)
STAMINA 12/22
LUCK 9/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA), Holy Sword (+1 SKILL in combat)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 9 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (restore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)

Dr_Noface · Post by **Dr_Noface** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 2:58 pm

Pump the barman first I guess. Also, can we eat a meal?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:40 pm

Agreed on both counts.

Sirocco · Post by **Sirocco** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 7:29 pm

Thirded.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 1:14 pm

We eat 1 meal and bring our STAMINA up to 16.

The barman says, 'You're not like my usual customers. A rough lot comes in here, most days. These fellows don't rely on charity for a crust, you know.' Will you try to make friends and ask him how he keeps order, or ask him how they get their money?

What do we ask him?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Captain D: The Master Baiter
SKILL 8/8 (9 in combat)
STAMINA 16/22
LUCK 9/10
Equipment: Leather Armor, Shield, Sap of the Willow (+4 STAMINA), Holy Sword (+1 SKILL in combat)
Gold: 0
Provisions: 8 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potion: Potion of Fortune (restore Luck to Initial value, +1 to Initial Luck)

Dr_Noface · Post by **Dr_Noface** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:11 pm

ask him about hi order

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:19 pm

Somehow I don't imagine that a barkeep in a crooked town will answer how his customers make money to an outsider. Ask him about how he keeps order.