[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 34 - Stealer of Souls

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

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What should be the name of our Hero?

Harry Balzac
3
43%
Dick Hertz
1
14%
I.P. Freely
1
14%
Grabsack Moorcock
2
29%
 
Total votes: 7

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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

As we weren't told what it was, don't ingest it except as last resort.
SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

You move wearily along the corridor which terminates abruptly at a brown archway; beyond this you hear the sound of dripping water, and there is a foul stench here. Beyond the archway is a sewer - but there's nowhere else to go, so you wade into the scum and muck, and fight down your nausea. As you progress, you see glowing rainbow-coloured lights in the distance, and stride out to the welcome light; but you hear scrabbling sounds and squeaks that grow louder. Then the water seems to boil as a swarm of plague rats bursts forth and nips your legs and body! Will you:

Cast a 'Speed' spell, if you can?
Cast a 'Dispel Illusion' spell, if you can?
Fight the rats?
Search in your backpack for something to use against the rats?
Run towards the light as fast as you can?
Seemingly quite a number of options available, as we have both spells listed......what do we do?
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

GOTTA GO FAST

I mean, cast Speed.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

I support that.
SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

You cast the spell and race away. You easily outrun the squeaking horde, and very soon make it to the end of the sewer.
Image
The passageway at the end of the sewer forks. You may follow either the yellow-green one or one which is filled with rainbow-coloured light.
And we're moving on to the multi-coloured section!

Which colours now?
Last edited by SGamerz on Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Rainbows.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

The color associated with vomit? Or happiness?

Happiness.
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Post by SGamerz »

Passing along the rainbow passage, you feel an unfamiliar sense of goodness. Another illusion, perhaps? The passage leads into a high-ceilinged chamber filled with rainbow-coloured lights. Inside, there are three semi-transparent human figures, and also three passages which exit on the far side of the chamber: one yellow-green, one azure, and one a deep ochre colour. One of the shimmering figures drifts soundlessly towards you, 'Brave friend, not everything here has been corrupted by the wicked one. He has not overcome all of us. Let me give you a blessing to aid you,' and he stretches out his hands to touch your head. Will you:

Let the figure touch you?
Run to the yellow-green passage?
Run to the azure passage?
Run to the ochre passage?
Do we want to let some strange guy feel us up? If not, which way do we run?
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Hm, feels good, but no chance to dispel illusion, so not illusion? Half a vote for allowing contact.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Let the stranger fondle the Balzac.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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Post by SGamerz »

The figure holds your head in its hands, and you feel energy pour into you. Regain 1 point of SKILL, 1 point of LUCK and 4 points of STAMINA; the LUCK point (and only the LUCK point) can take you above your Initial LUCK score, if this applies here. But this effort drains the figure; slowly he fades away to nothingness. One of the other figures says softly, 'Now he is at peace. He has sacrificed his soul to give you strength to overcome the evil wizard. Do not fail his memory.' Filled with new hope, you press on. Will you:

Take the yellow-green passage?
Take the azure passage?
Take the ochre passage?
Nice, our SKILL is back to max! Too bad our LUCK wasn't at max too.

Next colour?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Harry Balzac
SKILL 10/10 (+1 from Chainmail Armour)
STAMINA 13/20
LUCK 7/10
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, Jar of Ointment, Message Scroll ('350'), Silver Medallion, Luck Powder (x1, +1 LUCK), Silver Feather, 15-foot length of rope, Phial of White Oil, Pair of Bone Dice, Silver Ring, Crowbar, Chainmail Armour (+1 SKILL), Bronze Ring, Platinum Amulet, Golden Flask
Provisions: 5 Meals
Treasure: 14 Gold Pieces
Spells: Healing, Dispel Illusion (x 21), Speed
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Azure. Again, it's the only color available that doesn't remind me of vomit.
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Post by SGamerz »

You stride along the azure passage, and you come to a bridge over a deep, blue-tinged rock-chasm. You carefully test the solidity of the bridge before walking across it. On the other side is a black tunnel lit with gouts of red light which emanate from some distant fiery source. Filled with foreboding, you head for the dark tunnel, for this is the only exit.
Well, seem like we end up having to head into a black passage, after all, something we've been avoiding for a while.

Taking a meal for precaution here (STAMINA to 17).

Let's see if black indeed = danger....
Image
The black tunnel leads into a chamber crossed by two deep chasms. Gouts of flame spurt into the air from both, and clouds of burning gases hang in the air. On the other side of this infernal place you can make out two passages. You step carefully across the ground, in order to avoid the chasms and reach the passages, but then into the air rises a ghastly thing, malevolent and hideously evil: a jet black flying skull with glowing red eyes from which blood wells and drips, hissing, into the fiery chasms below. You feel the elemental evil of this thing and its hunger tor your soul! You are struck with fear; deduct 1 SKILL point for the duration of this combat, and lose 2 STAMINA points as well. Now you must fight this thing, which is no illusion!

DEATH SKULL SKILL 9 STAMINA 10

lf you win, turn to 15.
......*sigh*, so far we've gotten our SKILL to 10 twice, and never got to use that value in any of our combat!

We don't have Dispel Fear, so we have to take the -1 penalty for this fight. Again, fairly even fight with a slight advantage in STAMINA for us...

COMBAT LOG:
Death Skull 16, Harry 13. Harry is at 13.
DS 15, Harry 20. Skull is at 8.
DS 12, Harry 16. Skull is at 6.
DS 15, Harry 16. Skull is at 4.
DS 21, Harry 15. Harry is at 11.
DS 17, Harry 17. Tie.
DS 18, Harry 13. Harry is at 9.
DS 12, Harry 19. Skull is at 2.
DS 15, Harry 18. Skull is destroyed.
That wasn't too bad, I guess....
Now, will you take the light, airy passage or open some iron gates and walk down the frosty passage beyond?
The author's finally gotten sick of colours (or run out of combinations of them), and switched to appealing to our thermoceptic senses instead.

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Harry Balzac
SKILL 10/10 (+1 from Chainmail Armour)
STAMINA 9/20
LUCK 7/10
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, Jar of Ointment, Message Scroll ('350'), Silver Medallion, Luck Powder (x1, +1 LUCK), Silver Feather, 15-foot length of rope, Phial of White Oil, Pair of Bone Dice, Silver Ring, Crowbar, Chainmail Armour (+1 SKILL), Bronze Ring, Platinum Amulet, Golden Flask
Provisions: 4 Meals
Treasure: 14 Gold Pieces
Spells: Healing, Dispel Illusion (x 21), Speed
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Well, following the more pleasant sensation has worked so far, so light and airy it is.
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Post by SGamerz »

angelfromanotherpin wrote:Well, following the more pleasant sensation has worked so far, so light and airy it is.
Not all the "more pleasant" routes we've taken have been the best ones, actually. The difference between them that apparent though, since Martin wasn't big on random instant-deaths or ultra-hard puzzles in his early books, so none of the obstacles or penalties are outright lethal and very few of them are too punishing.
You move cautiously along the passage, but behind you a strong gust of wind almost blows you over, and then the wind grows stronger still! You cannot keep your feet and you are being swept forward by a maelstrom of swirling air . . . your body will be smashed to pieces on the rocks below! Your head swims with vertigo. In desperation, you clutch at an outcrop of rock and hang on, but the wrench to your arm costs you 2 STAMTNA points. As you cling on for dear life, a tenor of the bottomless drop fills your heart until you manage to control it. Now you must Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 62. If you are Unlucky, tum to 309.
Dice roll = 7 (Lucky)
You drag yourself up on to the plateau. Crawling across the rock to stay out of the howling wind, you finally reach a brown passage, and at last you can stand up, dust yourself off, and press onwards.
You follow the twisting, turning passageway until it ends at a door You force the door open and enter a square plain stone chamber, which has the statue of a man on one wall and two passages opposite; one is blue, one violet. As you step in, wisps of smoke pour from the mouth of the stone statue and form a yellow skeletal figure which glides across the floor and extends its hooked, clawed talons to rip at your throat! Will you:

Fight the Skeletal Illusion?
Run for the blue passage?
Run for the violet passage?
The scene looks familiar.....

Fight or not?
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Post by MisterDee »

Well, we had a dream where we dispelled that Illusion, and we still have one charge of Dispel. Half a vote to fight and Dispel since I doubt we would get a premonition if it wasn't important, but maybe we want to hold onto our last dispel?
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Might as well Dispel.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Fight!
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Post by SGamerz »

Do you have a silver medallion? lf you do, turn to 95. If you don't, turn to 230.
Yep, same one that gave us the premonition dream.
As the skeletal figure approaches, your medallion shines brightly; you take a swing at the figure with your sword and it disappears in to wisps of smoke, struck by your sword and the glittering white light cast by the medallion! But now the medallion grows dim and dull, and you suspect its powers are exhausted. Now, you can either follow the blue passageway or the violet passageway.
Turns out we didn't need the spell to dispel it!

Now we're back to basic rainbow colours. Which one?
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Post by MisterDee »

Violet I guess.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Both seem fine, why not violet?
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

It's fairly rare to get to take a violet door or passage, so let's go with that.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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Post by SGamerz »

The violet passage soon opens into a large, cratered cavern, littered with rocks and cobwebs; you think you see a single exit in the distance, but it is obscured by a huge rock, several yards across. Then the rock moves - it is no rock at all! Yellow-black hairy legs seem to spring out in all directions, and a bony black head rears up, showing razor-sharp mandibles. The wings on this mammoth Spider's back buzz and flutter, but it moves towards you on its great, springing legs. You sense that this is an illusion, but one of exceptional strength. Waves of fear radiate from the thing; you must deduct 1 point from your SKILL temporarily! (during this combat) and lose 2 points of STAMINA due to this fear. If you can, you have time to cast a 'Dspel Fear' spell, which negates these effects. As the Spider closes in, will you use a 'Dispel Illusion' spell or fight the monster with your sword?
That took our STAMINA down to 5, so I'm going to have Harry gobble down another meal to bring it back to 9.

Another fear-induced SKILL penalty.....they seem really determined not to let us make full use of our enhanced SKILL score!

DO we want to use our last spell here?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Harry Balzac
SKILL 10/10 (+1 from Chainmail Armour)
STAMINA 9/20
LUCK 6/10
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, Jar of Ointment, Message Scroll ('350'), Silver Medallion, Luck Powder (x1, +1 LUCK), Silver Feather, 15-foot length of rope, Phial of White Oil, Pair of Bone Dice, Silver Ring, Crowbar, Chainmail Armour (+1 SKILL), Bronze Ring, Platinum Amulet, Golden Flask
Provisions: 3 Meals
Treasure: 14 Gold Pieces
Spells: Healing, Dispel Illusion (x 21), Speed
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

If it's an extra-strength illusion, using our illusion-killing spell is probably a good idea.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Yes, definitely.
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