[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 64(?)-Night of the Necromancer

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

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Who do we want to play as?

Anvus Ravalan, Nightsbane & Remorseless Hunter
0
No votes
Evrain Peredur, the Zombie Killer
1
17%
Isolde Laodegan, Shield Maiden of Libra
5
83%
Create our own character
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No votes
 
Total votes: 6

SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

Starmaker wrote:I assume the three items are designed to be (almost?) mutually exclusive,
We actually went through the section that might have allowed us to pick up the Jet Amulet. It was the room where we fought the skeletal dragonthing and then get to roll the dice 3 times to pick up 3 random loot items. The amulet was one of those.
It's actually not a useful item.
Letting the black-bound spell book fall open in your hands you are immediately confronted by three spells which may be suitable given the circumstances. The only problem is that although you can pronounce the words written in human blood, you do not actually understand the meaning of the dark tongue of necromancy.

And then two of the shadowy Tenebrae are gliding towards you over the damp grass and frosted heather, reaching for you with their claws of darkness. You are going to have to make a decision and fast. Which spell will you read?

Dae deht fos tirip she thsin abot?
Senok radeh truoc cusot?
Li vef oeca feht nignor tsebot?


If you don't want to risk invoking the powers of necromancy, turn to 124.
Hey, this necromancy language isn't really that hard to understand! Or maybe Isolde is just naturally gifted at this stuff.

Which spell do we cast?
Blade
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Post by Blade »

- To banish the spirits of the dead
- To succour the dark ones
- To be strong in the face of evil

Something tells me that number 2 is a bad idea, and 1 not really applicable in that case. Number 3 looks cool.
MisterDee
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Post by MisterDee »

Option 1 could backfire as well, as we are a spirit of the dead, too.

Go with 3.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Spell #3. Banishing the dead will probably get *us*, and succouring the darkness will enhance his game over plan. Being strong in the face of evil is the best bet.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Li vef oeca feht nignor tsebot.
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Post by SGamerz »

A curious radiating glow floods your being and you feel reinvigorated, in mind as well as body. Regain up to 5 STAMINA points, 1 SKILL point and 1 LUCK point, and add 1 to your WILL score.
We regained our lost SKILL. Could have saved those meals too, but I guess we won't be needing those for too long anyway.
Actually, Spell #1 would have worked for us. Apparently, these Tenebrae things count as undead spirits....and I guess we're not harmed because the spell is target-specific? Possibly like our homunculus' Banish Spirit (which doesn't hurt us either).....and we actually could have used the homunculus on them too, if we'd tried to sneak close without using any items.
You must fight the faceless Tenebrae together.

First TENEBRAE SKILL 7 STAMINA 7
Second TENEBRAE SKILL 8 STAMINA 7

If you manage to defeat these creatures of darkness, regain up to 7 STAMINA points and turn to 132. However, if they are, quite literally, the death of you, write the number 132 on your Adventure Sheet and turn to 100.
While the text doesn't make it very clear, these actually are undead, so Nightslayer gets it's bonus. On the other hand, they're "shadow-born creatures, trailing smoky tendrils", so I think they shouldn't be material enough for Korzen to help out (not that we'll need it).

It's also not very clear whether we should regain STAMINA (after winning the fight) for Isolde's spirit (which is already full) or for Marrok's body. Since so far all the STAMINA we regained from winning battles are for the spirit, I'm going to rule that Marrok doesn't heal for beating them (it also makes less sense).

COMBAT LOG:
Tenebrae#1 13, Isolde (Marrok) 18. T1 is at 4.
Tenebrae#2 10, Isolde (Marrok) 19. Marrok avoids attack.
T1 14, Isolde (Marrok) 18. T1 is at 1.
T2 14, Isolde (Marrok) 21. Marrok avoids attack.
T1 14, Isolde (Marrok) 19. T1 is banished.
T2 11, Isolde (Marrok) 21. Marrok avoids attack.
T2 14, Isolde (Marrok) 16. T2 is at 4.
T2 19, Isolde (Marrok) 23. T2 is at 1.
T2 12, Isolde (Marrok) 19. T2 is banished.
And Marrok doesn't even need the heal!
A sound like a thunderclap bursts across the circle of standing stones and you know that Unthank the Necromancer has achieved what he set out to do this night through his dark ritual. Gasps of 'The Shadow King comes!' rise from the remaining cultists, who all fall to their knees in obeisance. All except for Unthank.

'Behold the Lord of Shadows!" he declares staring up at the moonless sky above the Nine Maidens, 'The ruler of the night! You lord and master!'

Something is condensing out of the moonless night at the very centre of the stone circle. As you watch, dumbfounded, a looming figure, twice as tall as a man, takes shape, clothing itself in the very fabric od the night. It looks like a giant wearing ancient armour forged from the metal of the night beneath a shroud o darkness, an ornate crowned helm on its head. But it is its face that stops you in your tracks - for it doesn't have one. All that lies beneath its armoured helm are two malevolently glowing coals that burn red like a pair of dying stars. And then the lunar eclipse pases and the apparition is revealed in all its malignant glory.

Peering down at the ground, it fixes the necromancer with its malevolent gaze. Then it reaches forth its hand and a blade of pure darkness above its head, pauses for a moment, and then brings it down in a sweeping arc - and Unthank is cut down with a single stroke.

'Arrogant fool,' the dread apparition snarls in a voice like the slamming of crypt doors. (Add the codeword Retribution to your Adventure Sheet.)

The cultists start to whimper in fear. You suddenly feel colder than you have ever felt in your life and the hairs on the back of your neck start to rise. But that shouldn't be possible...

If you have the codeword Revenant, or Host, or Armoured still written on your Adventure Sheet, turn to 275. If not, turn to 448.
Ok, Shadow King, I don't even know what you are, we had no quarrels that I know of, and I wasn't even sure if I would have stopped your summoning, but now you just killed the man we wanted to stab and deprived us of our chance at direct revenge, and by that unforgivable act you've made yourself an enemy for life!
You experience a sudden, weird sense of dislocation and looking down at your body, watch as your spirit form us expelled from the borrowed body you have been using. It is such an unnerving experience you take a sharp breath in surprise; but that shouldn't be possible either....
Image

You look down at your body but you can no longer see the world through your misty form. Before your very eyes your ethereal form is becoming a thing of blood, flesh and bone once more. Suddenly it all becomes clear in your mind; Unthank was living on borrowed time, your life-time in fact, and now that he is dead that life-force has been restored to you. You are alive again and a ghost no more! Restore your SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores to their Initial levels.

The monstrous night-born spectre peers down at you and a voice like thunder roll across the wind-swept hillside. 'Bow before me, worm!' Its burning ember eyes bore into you like smouldering branding irons. Roll two side, adding 3 to the total if you have the codeword Talisman written on your Adventure Sheet. If the final total is less than or equal to your WILL score turn to 159, but if it is greater, turn to 326.
Wait, so our spirit form just solidifies into a physical body? What happens to our original body lying in the chapel? Does it disintegrate? Does it turn into Unthank's body now that the life-force is switched back to us? Or do we still have another body looking like us (with a hole in its chest) lying there which we can put in a glass box and exhibit in our family museum after all this is over?

Also, if our codeword had been Revenant, we'd actually have been in our own (dead) body anyway, so why the hell were we expelled from our old body just to grow a new one??

I get the feeling that Mr Green was really losing focus here.....

Well, at least we can't fail this WILL test, since we don't have that Talisman codeword......
The will of the Shadow King, one of the Lords of Death, is a powerful force indeed, a tangible force like some crushing tentacle of evil. But you have not fought your way through hosts of Undead, facing untold dangers to be resurrected from the dead only to fail now. Chamberlain Unthank may be dead, and your need for vengeance satisfied, but now an even greater evil threatens the future of these lands, as great an evil, in fact, as that defeated by the massed forces of the Crusade against Evil that cleansed Bathoria.

'I shall not bow before you!" you scream in defiance at the undead entity. 'Your servant Unthank the Necromancer failed to destroy me, even though he tried, and so shall you fail too!'

Thunder rumbles over and around the stone circle again and it takes a moment for you to realize that the Shadow King is mocking you with laughter. If you have the codeword Retribution written on your Adventure Sheet, turn to 419. If not, turn to 375.
Our need for vengeance was satisfied? Hell no it's not! We just have to make to with killing his beloved master!
'My servant failed me before.' the Shadow King agrees, his words reverberating from the ancient stones of the henge, 'but he shall not fail me again.' With that the necromancer's corpse twitches and lurches to its feet. In the short time that Unthank has been dead, his body has begun to decompose at a rate beyond all reason. Rotting hands outstretched before it, ready to throttle the life from you, Unthank the Undead lurches towards you, moaning balefully.

UNTHANK UNDEAD SKILL 9 STAMINA 8

If the undead necromancer scores two consecutive hits against you, the shambling corpse grasps you by the neck and throttles you for an additional die of damage. If you win, turn to 375. However, should Unthank's corpse succeed in slaying you again, there will be no coming back a second time and your adventure, like your life, will be over....
Why, thank you, how considerate of you to actually give us the opportunity to stab our murderer in the face....

I'm assuming we'll grab all our loot from Marrok's body, since for some reason he's unable to participate in this whole thing. The text doesn't say if our host is unconscious or not!

Assuming we still have all our loot, Isolde is actually more deadly now with her initial stats!

COMBAT LOG:
Unthank Undead 15, Isolde 19. UU is at 5.
UU 10, Isolde 15. UU is at 2.
UU 14, Isolde 15. UU is cut down!
'You may not fear death,' the Shadow King booms, 'but during an eternity in servitude you shall learn to fear me!' With his mighty sword of darkness in his fell grip, the Shadow King strides towards you, ready to engage you in the most titanic struggle of your life. But how can you fight one of the Great Undead and win? Will you:

Use Oil of Midnight against it (if you have such a thing)?
Use a Spirit Stone (if you have one)?
Use the Codex Mortis (if you have it)?

If you would rather simply face the Shadow King in hand-to-hand combat, putting cold steel against cold night, choose the weapon you want to use carefully and turn to 249.
We had the oil once but we used it up, so once again we're left with the evil spell book for item usage? Do we want to use it again?

And since the text specifically mentions it, what weapon do you want to use if you pick direct combat?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Isolde Laodegan
SKILL: 13/13
STAMINA: 19/19
LUCK: 7/7
WILL: 14
Equipment: Deathsbane, Nightslayer (does 3 STAMINA damage on Undead), Velvet Purse (worth 6 GP), Potion of Fortune (restore LUCK to full), Potion of Strength (restore STAMINA to full), Codex Mortis, Soul Shield (+1 SKILL), Amethyst Blade
Abilities: Apparition, Poltergeist, Shade, Spook, Fizzgig the Homunculus (2 uses out of 4 following spells: Banish Undead, Luck, Skill, Strength)
Codewords: Ironheart, Barking, Best Friend, Steed, Gateway, Devourer, Rest In Peace, Banshee, Catacombs, Watcher, Host, Hellfire, Retribution
Provisions: 3 Meals (+4 STAMINA each)

Note: When fighting opponents with physical forms, opponents' Attack Strength is reduced by one while Korzen ("Best Friend") is with us.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Let's try the banish spell from the book now. If it comes to a fight, use our own blade.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Ah, so Shadow King is a JRPG villain! Try using Banish on him and then fight with Nightslayer if that comes up.
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Post by Omegonthesane »

Banish then Nightslay.
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Post by SGamerz »

Willing Unthank's own book of necromantic magic to provide you with what you need to defeat the Shadow King you let it fall open in your hands where it will and begin to read. But you are playing with fire by invking the very powers that you seek to vanquish. Lose 2 WILL points. Now roll two dice and if the total rolled is less than or equal to your WILL score, turn to 184, but if it is greater, turn to 326.
This is definitely meant to be the riskier option....but since our WILL was at 14, even after losing 2 points we can't possibly fail the test!
A cold sweat breaks out on your forehead and you find yourself gritting your teeth as you struggle to force the very powers you seek to destroy to aid you in their own destruction. But somehow, against all the odds, you manage it.

As you continue to read the spell of banishment the codex found for you, the veil between worlds is torn asunder and the ghosts of a thousand damned souls rush through the tear in the fabric of reality, and surround the Shadow King with a whirling vortex of spectral light. You watch in awe as the spirits tear the Shadow King's insubstantial form apart with their spectral talons. The Death Lord does his best to defend himself from their relentless assault but in the end he's simply overwhelmed. Soon there is nothing left of the Shadow King but a few traces of inky darkness at the heart of the whirling spirit vortex and then, with one last howl of fury and frustration, even that is gone as the evil entity is dragged back to the Realm of the Damned. With an explosive thunderclap boom, as of slamming tombs, the rent in reality closes again.
Apparently, we found the right spell just by randomly flipping the book.

Ok, I would say summoning a thousand damned souls to mob the Big Villain to death is probably one of coolest endings to be found in an FF gamebook.
You rush over to the altar stone and it is with an overwhelming sense of relief that you see that Oriana remains unharmed. But as you hold your sister close, you cannot shake the feeling that someone is watching you. You turn to see a spectral figure watching oyu, a look of unalloyed hatred in its eyes. You recognize the figure at once - it is Unthank the Necromancer.

With a howl of frustrated fury, the undead spirit of the necromancer flies at you. But. as they say, the night is always darkest just before the dawn. Even as Unthank's ghost goes for you, the first probing fingers of morning appear over the wine-dark ocean to the east as a new day dawns. With a soul-shredding scream, Unthank's undead spirit dissolves into vapour as the first rays of sunlight strike his ethereal form, sending him on his way at least to the Other Side and the Lands of the Dead where he shall be punished for all eternity. The night of the necromancer is over and it is the beginning of a new day, a day of endless possibilities...

THE END

Congratulations, you made it to the successful end without dying.....erm, I mean without dying again....oh wait.....ok, without hitting any of the bad endings in the book!

This book certainly looks like it had more work put into the design structure than many others in the series. Not without its flaws, but it's certainly one of the better and more innovative ones, and IMO the best one out of the new books. I hope you guys enjoyed it like I did!

As usual I will be posting some of the stuff we didn't go through (as previously requested I will certainly be going through the many choices of host bodies, as well as other options of gain a physical form). If you have any other particular request/questions, let me know. I'll probably be posting again 2-3 days later.

Thanks for playing!
Last edited by SGamerz on Sun Feb 28, 2016 9:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by MisterDee »

Was there a point to all the money we could find after fighting the bone monster?
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Post by Mr Shine »

What's the benefit from taking the Fool's Bargain? What's the cost to resist it?

Also the code doesn't get checked again when we see our sister, although we could have skipped the kennels. Guess we don't really care about her either.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

SGamerz wrote:Ok, I would say summoning a thousand damned souls to mob the Big Villain to death is probably one of coolest endings to be found in an FF gamebook.
It's great, but I think Globus' death is still the best.
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Post by ashimbabbar »

Greetings

I have been lurking on your forum for some time, however I now appear to point out a detail.

I only knew Night of the Necromancer throough a fanmade French translation of the 1st version, and it appears to differ from this version on another point than adding prerolled characters.
Namely, when we first reach the sacrifice before the fight with the Tenebrae (§241), it offers us the choice of 1 more item: a Dark Hourglass.
Using it sends us to §296 which kills Unthank but we have to face 2 Dread Knights ( I can't help picture them as knights with dreads… sorry ) then the Shadow Lord appears.

I'd like to know what it has been replaced with in this version ?
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Post by Starmaker »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:It's great, but I think Globus' death is still the best.
Yep, the Stalker placing the Aleph next to his body was perfection.

I'm interested in how the Other Side works (from "turn to 100" onward -- there's apparently a bad ending at 400? huh?), the Talisman and Rest in Peace keywords (ominous), and the special abilities we missed (Spectre, Spirit?).
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Post by SGamerz »

ashimbabbar wrote:Greetings

I have been lurking on your forum for some time, however I now appear to point out a detail.

I only knew Night of the Necromancer throough a fanmade French translation of the 1st version, and it appears to differ from this version on another point than adding prerolled characters.
Namely, when we first reach the sacrifice before the fight with the Tenebrae (§241), it offers us the choice of 1 more item: a Dark Hourglass.
Using it sends us to §296 which kills Unthank but we have to face 2 Dread Knights ( I can't help picture them as knights with dreads… sorry ) then the Shadow Lord appears.

I'd like to know what it has been replaced with in this version ?
That was apparently a slip by me. I distinctly remember typing that option in, but it seems it didn't get posted. I suspect I might have accidentally deleted it while I was setting the various tags (bold, italics, strikeouts, etc). There's nothing omitted from either version of the book.

For the others, I will post more on the Black Hourglass later.
Starmaker wrote:
Darth Rabbitt wrote:It's great, but I think Globus' death is still the best.
Yep, the Stalker placing the Aleph next to his body was perfection.
No arguments from me there, that's my personal favourite FF ending too.
Starmaker wrote: I'm interested in how the Other Side works (from "turn to 100" onward -- there's apparently a bad ending at 400? huh?), the Talisman and Rest in Peace keywords (ominous), and the special abilities we missed (Spectre, Spirit?).
The part about Deaths is one of the things I planned to elaborate on, so I put them in a separate posts. Same with all the ghostly abilities.

The Talisman codeword is a result of using the Jet Amulet. It's apparently an evil charm that enhances the powers of darkness, therefore it makes it harder to resist the Shadow King if we have the codeword. In addition, in the section we choose to use it, we lose a LUCK point and a WILL point.

The Rest In Peace codeword is basically one of the ways we can get a physical body. It's the easiest to get (compared to using the armour or possessing someone), since we just need to visit the chapel and find our body. We do have to pass a somewhat tough WILL test (1D6 +2), but since there're so many ways to get WILL bonuses in the middle part of the book that shouldn't be too much of a problem. If we successfully get back into our own body, we can enter the Keep using the Revenant codeword. Again, I'll elaborate more about the various forms of physical bodies later.
Mr Shine wrote:What's the benefit from taking the Fool's Bargain? What's the cost to resist it?

Also the code doesn't get checked again when we see our sister, although we could have skipped the kennels. Guess we don't really care about her either.
Yeah, that would be one of my complaints about the writing. It seems like the writer either forgot about the codeword or originally planned for the meeting with the dog to be unavoidable.

Anyway, making the deal with the witch (that gets us Fool's Bargain) allows us to unlock a ghostly power: either Shade or Spectre (50/50 chance on a die roll). The book does give us one more chance to back out by telling us that there will be a price, but it doesn't specify what the price it is until we agree. We lose 2 LUCK immediately upon discovering what the price is.

When we find Korzen, we'll be compelled to kill him, but will have the option to resist it. If we kill it, we lose a further 2 LUCK and 2 WILL (and of course doesn't get the dog's bonus). If we resist the curse, we lose 2 SKILL, 2 WILL, 1 LUCK and 1D6+2 STAMINA. The price isn't lethal or anything....but the prize is not really worth it, considering there are more than one other opportunities to learn either of those powers, neither of which are really vital (and Spectre really isn't that useful).

However, with the advantage or meta-gaming and hindsight, I'm now thinking experienced players may deliberately choose to pick up the curse and take the penalty (resisting the kill), then get themselves killed in a fight so that when they get back from Hell all their stats will be restored anyway. :tongue:
MisterDee wrote:Was there a point to all the money we could find after fighting the bone monster?
I might have missed some obscure section that allows you to use gold...but I doubt it. You certainly don't need them for anything important. I think those are just supposed to be red herring items from the loot piles.

More to come in separate posts....
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Post by SGamerz »

Getting a Physical Body:

As you will know by now, the 3 main ways of getting into the Keep are: using "Spook" ability to possess someone, finding the automated armour, and using our own body from the chapel. Each have their own conditions and advantage. Spook gives us the biggest range of possibilities and is generally the best option unless we miss meeting all the good possible hosts (and there are quite a few that range from great to solid choices). The armour is probably the hardest to get, and I don't really think it's worth the effort compared to the other options.

First, about Spook:

Possible Hosts:

1) Captain Cador, Captain of the Castle Guards (SKILL 12 STAMINA 20).

Location: Barracks

The one character with more awesome stats than Isolde, Captain Cador is almost definitely the best option. Besides his obvious stats advantage, he'll also allow you to possess him without resistance if you speak to him before hand and convince him of your identity. He is understandably suspicious when he first sees you, and requires some convincing, but unlike Marrok he doesn't just attack you blindly.

Here's an example of the book withholding information from the player that the PC should be aware of (in fact, it's the one I made a vague reference to earlier): Cador will be convinced if you can name your beloved dog (using the A=1, B=2, etc, puzzle). Now logically, the PC should know the name of her dog in the story whether she went to the kennels first or not, but for the player, the only way we can pass this puzzle is if we visit the kennels before we visit the barracks. It doesn't make sense, and is one of the many inconsistencies in the writing for this book.

Anyway, in addition to awesome stats, Cador also has his own blessed magic sword, just like Marrok. He loses out a bit on STAMINA, as he only has 2 meals, but with his SKILL he probably won't need them.

If we didn't manage to convince him beforehand, we can still try to possess him by passing the same WILL test we used on Marrok.

Other functions: Other than serving as a host, Cador has other important functions, most importantly, he knows the number combinations to unlocking the automated armour! Also, like Bertild, you can gain some more information by asking him about certain topics.

2) Marrok the Crusader (SKILL 11, STAMINA 22)

Location: Feast Hall

Well, we used him as our Host, so not much more I need to say about him. If you prefer having more STAMINA and meals to the extra SKILL, you may consider him to be the best option. He's certainly more than sufficient to win the game with. You will always need to pass that WILL test to take him, since you never get a chance to convince him who you are.

Other Functions: None.

3) Bertild the Blacksmith (SKILL 11, STAMINA 21)

Location: Smithy

As you can see, her stats are just about as good as Marrok's so who needs him. :tongue: Ok, so she lacks a few things compared to Marrok. She only has 3 meals, and she doesn't start with a magic weapon. However, her blacksmith's hammer has a 50% chance of doing 3 damage in normal combat, so I'd call that a good trade off. And she's certainly the easiest to convince to help us, we just have to talk to her. Theoretically, if we did not convince her before hand, the WILL test we'd have tot take is still slightly easier (2D6-1). Then again, the only we'd even know her name without convincing her is if we'd been killed by the salt barrier at the smithy's entrance, so chances are we'd be able to possess her without resistance.

Other functions: Mainly just information, and of course, she can tell us the location of the armour.

4) Father Umberto (SKILL 10, STAMINA 19)

Location: Chapel

Solid stats, and about as tough to possess as Marrok, so that sets him a notch below. He's still a solid option in terms of fighting stats. He only has 2 meals, but he also has an additional advantage: he can cast unlimited Banish Spirit spells without the homunculus' help. Also, like Bertild, he has a weapon that does 3 damage half the time.

Also much like Marrok, we never get a chance to convince him to help us: he has the same kind of trigger-happy attitude towards undead. If he'd seen us in the chapel, he'd have Banished us straight to the gates of Hell (counts as one death)

I think when Madame Zelda (the fortune teller) warned us about people who believe only in Good, she's probably referring to either Marrok or Umberto. Van Richten is another possibility.

Other Function: None, although technically you need to meet him if you want the Rest In Peace codeword.

5) Inglenook the Cook (SKILL 9, STAMINA 22)

Location: Kitchen

We've tried using him too, so we know what he has. He's a surprisingly decent option, a little lacking in SKILL, but he has more food than anyone else besides Marrok.

Other Functions: None, he will raise the alarm if we revealed ourselves to him.

6) Yorrick the Gravedigger (SKILL 9, STAMINA 17)

Location: Graveyard (of course)

We skipped the graveyard, but there were actually a few things to be gained here. Firstly we could have picked up the clue about "Man's natural lifespan:" on one of the gravestone. Then of course we get to talk to this guy. He's one of the few people in the castle who doesn't scream or attack at the sight of us. Apparently, due to his job he's used to seeing ghosts, and will be quite happy to talk to us. He will not willingly allow us to possess him, but he seems to be less resistant than average: we can take him with a 2D6-2 test on WILL.

Other functions: As mentioned, he's one of the sources of information. Nothing actually vital, but a few potentially useful stuff, such as letting us know that our Dad is haunting the Blasted Tower and has something to tell us, or about the secret tunnels to the catacombs under the chapel.

He starts with 3 meals, and he unfortunately has a crappy weapon, a spade that only does half damage 1/3 of the time.

7) Random Castle Guard (SKILL 8, STAMINA 18)

Surprisingly not the worst possible option, although one has to question why men who are employed to guard will be weaker than the fat cook. He starts with 3 meals and a normal sword, nothing remarkable. They're easier to possess than the priest and the crusader, requiring only a normal WILL test.

8) Blondel the Bard (SKILL 8, STAMINA 15)

Location: Feast Hall

Another possibility we've tried. Hos one standout feature is that he has a magic lyre. As far as I'm aware, the two-headed Fluffy is the only thing the lyre works on.

Other functions: None, if we revealed ourselves to him, he'll panic and try to use his magic lyre to banish us (we can resist via WILL test). Unfortunately we don't know how to do that even when we take over his body.

9) Falstaff the Porter (SKILL 7, STAMINA 16)

Location: Barbican

Yeah, this guy is pretty feeble physically. On top of that, he doesn't carry normal food....he uses cider as food, so every time we drink to recover STAMINA, we have to reduce our Attack Strength by a further 1 the following battle. He's easy to possess, because he's too drunk to resist us. However, the only reason we'd want to use is either 1) we missed all the best options and have REALLY crappy WILL score that we can't even pass the test to take a random castle guard; or 2) we don't have any particularly great host, so we grab him first to use as easy fodder to weaken the Golem before we take someone else!

Other functions: He's important in that he's one of your only 2 chances (and the only reliable one) to learn Spook in this book, and the other way is completely random (taught by the ghost of the wizard in the catacombs...more on that in later posts).

10) Toadstone the Castle Fool (SKILL 6, STAMINA 14)

Location: Barbican Dungeons

We missed this guy when we chose not to investigate downstairs in the Barbican. This guy was apparently driven mad by what had happened in Valsinore during our absence, so he doesn't resist us at all when we try to possess him. However, he has crappy stats, no food, and only a normal weapon (stiletto dagger), so much like Falstaff there's absolutely no reason to pick him unless you have no other choice or are looking to use him as pure fodder.

Other Function: His main function in the game is to give you the other half of the clues required to get the Automated Armour: amidst bad jokes crazy babbles when you try to talk to him, he will mention that he knows that a certain number code needs to be reversed. So basically, you need the clues from both Cador and this guy to get the armour!

*This is taking longer than I first thought, so I'll be stopping a while and be back later. Might take me the next couple of days to cover the stuff we missed. Sorry for the wait!
Last edited by SGamerz on Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SGamerz »

11) Iago the Gaoler (SKILL 8, STAMINA 18)

This is, of course, strictly a replacement if you happen to lose (or give up) your original body. Same stats as a normal guard, except he doesn't have any food, being prisoner and all.

Automation Armour:

This is pretty easy to miss, and IMO not really worth the trouble. Finding out the code from Cador, learning that you need to reverse them from the Fool, finding the armour itself, having/learning Poltergeist to move the tumblers, and finally passing a WILL test to successfully take control.....all that for a body that gives you 24 STAMINA and a SKILL score 1 less than your original. So yes, Anvus Ravalan will still suck in it. That 24 STAMINA may look good, but the fact that you can't restore them with provisions means that the armour is really a worse investment than most of the human hosts. Isolde will of course still be pretty badass in it, but then Isolde will has a whole range of better or easier options, including the one below....

Rest In Peace/Revenant:

For this option, we only need to visit the chapel. Even if the priest sees us and banish us, as long as we hadn't already died too many times, we still get the codeword the moment we see the body.

Admittedly, using our own body requires a slightly more difficult WILL test than the armour....but as mentioned before the middle stage of the game is where we can find plenty of WILL bonuses, so that's not really too much of a concern unless we've made some really bad choices.

This isn't really much better than the armour, but at least we get to use our original SKILL (Anvus will still be crap, yes, but slightly less so). We also get 2 less STAMINA, but I think that's less of a loss than the SKILL penalty.

The Warith Queen's choices:

Regarding a differences in bodies, the 3 options given to us by the Wraith Queen in the Catacombs in fact each affects one of those adversely.

We chose Pestilence earlier....which is especially bad for us if we were in our own rotting body, because the monster speeds up the decaying process. (Host is also somewhat affected too by the Decayer).

If we picked Hellfire, we'd have to fight something called "Bone-Fire" which is apparently some burning skeletal thing. The automation armour is apparently most vulnerable to its attacks as it can set the metal on fire and cause it to burn and lose STAMIAN every round until the fight is over.

If we picked Brimstone, we have to fight a Stench Ghoul, and our (living) human host body will have to fight with a -2 SKILL penalty due to the smell. Also, both living hosts and our zombie body can be paralysed with the classic "3 hit" from the ghoul (although our Spirit can continue the fight after our body is paralysed....but then we won't be able to pick up Nightslayer). The armour is of course immune to the paralysis.

Deaths:

As you can see from section 100, there are 4 possible codewords listed, which means we can visit that section up to 5 times before we hit Game Over. Of course, it doesn't mean we'll always have 4 chances, since every time we go there there'll be some sort of test. We've been through the first 2. The first is a simple WILL test. If we had failed that test, we immediately gain the second codeword and fight the Sin Eater (which was the second test).

On our third "death" (or if we lost against the Sin Eater), we'll meet the "Watcher":
Image

It will ask us why we should be allowed to leave again. If we answer that we want Revenge, it'll ask us if we know who we're looking for. If we know by then that Unthank is our enemy, we'll need to spell out his name once again using the "A=1" code. This is where we have a second opportunity to learn the answer about man's natural lifespan, As Death reveals to us that Unthank has been cheating death using dark powers. Because Death wants Unthank as much as we do, he gives us the afore-mentioned Black Hourglass, which we can then use to insta-kill Unthank during the endgame ritual!

If instead of claiming revenge, we merely ask for a second chance from the Watcher, there will be a 50/50 chance that he will be amused enough to let us go, but we won't get the Hourglass or the clue to the riddle this way.

Failure to give the Watcher a satisfactory answer (or if we die yet again after that), will get us the Endgame codeword.......where all the lost souls murdered by Unthank or his cronies will plead for our release in the hope that we can finally bring justice for everyone as the Champion of the Dead. This will literally be our last chance. If we come back here again, it's straight to section 400, which is, yes, a bad ending, and our soul is lost for all eternity.

I will post what will probably be my final breakdown tomorrow, which includes the information about our special powers and a couple of major encounters (and 1 subquest) that we missed.
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Post by maglag »

SGamerz wrote: Surprisingly not the worst possible option, although one has to question why men who are employed to guard will be weaker than the fat cook.
Since Ingelbook was described as being a pretty good cook and working for a long time, he certainly got a bunch of levels under his belt giving him a solid Bab while mister nameless redshirt is probably only lv1.

Yorrick is only the gravekeeper and also has Skill 9, since he's had his fair share of experiences facing ghosts and stuff.

The bard and the other named characters with less Bab weren't grizzly veterans and thus low level.
Last edited by maglag on Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:56 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by SGamerz »

Our Ghostly Powers:

There are 6 of these in this book, and we missed 2 of them (Spirit and Spectre). One of them isn't really much of a loss, since I don't recall it being ever really useful. I list them in the order of what I consider to be the most important and not-to-be-missed learning opportunity.

1) Spook

Opportunities to learn it:

1) Atempting to control the porter in the Barbican
2) 1/6 chance (die roll) to learn from the wizard in the catacombs (if we asked him to help us with our powers

Pretty much the main reason why low-stat characters like Anvus or even the minimum 7/14/7 character actually have a shot at winning this book. The reason being, once you pick up one of the best Host bodies like Cador or Marrok you shouldn't have too much trouble winning the game, especially there really aren't that many opponents with SKILL above 10. (The Shadow King has 13 SKILL, but there are more than one way to beat him without actually fighting him). Of course, they still need to survive till the late-middle part of the game before they can look for host, but the fact that losing combats don't lead to instant Game Overs mean that they still have a good chance of making it.

The main challenge about this is the fact that there aren't that many opportunities to learn it. Other than the way we did it (using it on Falstaff the Porter), the only other way is to learn from Aramanthus the dead wizard.....and there we only have a 1 in 6 chance of getting the right power, because Aramanthus knows all 6 abilities, so the chances of learning the one you actually want is too great.

2) Shade

Opportunities to learn it:

1) 50/50 chance by agreeing to Mother Toadsfoot's price (Fool's Bargain)
2) Pass WILL test in the Cockcrow Inn (if we fail, Van Richten and his henchman attack us)
3) 1/3 chance to learn it from the ghost of the paladin in the shrine at Sleath
4) Pass WILL test in the Feast Hall (if we fail Dread Knights attack us)
5) 1/6 chance (die roll) to learn from the wizard in the catacombs (if we asked him to help us with our powers

Shade is not vital, but fairly significant plotwise, because that's the only way we can get definitive proof of Unthank betrayal before entering the Keep (hence our answering the riddle about Unthank being the lord of Valsinore makes more sense, as well as us getting the Black Hourglass from Watcher). It also help us unlock a side-quest.

Basically, what we probably should have done at the Feast Hall was, instead of approaching the narrow-and-bloody-minded Marrok, we should have followed Unthank, and we would have found him talking to the Death Acolyte who murdered us (sadly, we never get to kill he Acolyte):
Image

We can also learn that he's seeking the Spirit Stone, which is in the Tower of the Winter King at Frostfinger. He also mentions his birthplace, Fetchfen (this is a red herring clue to throw us off later).

Soon after that they will discover us. There's no way to avoid that, and Unthank will banish us back to Hell. So yes, the "optimal path" involves us dying at least once, but when we come back, we'd be given the opportunity to look for the Spirit Stone. (As mentioned before, the name Fetchfen will be used as a red herring, as the player will need to chose between Fetchfen and Frostfinger and only has time to choose one.)

If, instead of following Unthank, we approached Marrok, or had to fight Dread Knights due to not have Shade, then Unthank will appear after the fight and banish us, also confirming that he's indeed a traitor (we missed this scene because we chose to let Marrok kill us). However, this way we won't learn about the Spirit Stone.

So Shade is fairly important, although the book is still quite winnable without it. It is also useful in quite a few places, helping to avoid fights and detection, so it's quite high in terms of importance. However, there are much more opportunities to learn this compared to Spook (and most other powers), which is great.

3) Spirit

1) 1/3 chance to learn it from the ghost of the paladin in the shrine at Sleath
2) Pass WILL test outside Valsinore to fly over the walls
3) 1/6 chance (die roll) to learn from the wizard in the catacombs (if we asked him to help us with our powers

This is the power of flight, as you have probably guessed by now. This is fairly useful as there are multiple opportunities to use it in the book. The catch is that using this ability isn't always a good thing. For example, if we chose to fly over the Barbican instead of entering it, we'd miss the armour, Falstaff and Toadstone. On the flip side, the opportunity to learn this is pretty hard to miss, since we'd always encounter that option when we first come home.

We may also require this ability in order to get the Spirit Stone, although we do have an alternative for this. Because Frostfinger (Fetchfen too, for that matter) is a long way from our home, and the whole story takes place within one night, we must have a way to fly to these destination to complete the side-quest. Spirit is one way to do it...the other way is to use the ghost horse (Steed) we found in the stable! So this power is useful for the optimal path, but there are alternative ways to get past that. So this power falls under "useful, but not too important".

4 & 5 (tied)): Apparition and Poltergeist:

Opportunities to learn Apparition:

1) Pass WILL test to enter Barrows at the beginning
2) Pass WILL test outside Cockcrow Inn
3) 1/6 chance (die roll) to learn from the wizard in the catacombs (if we asked him to help us with our powers)

Opportunities to learn Poltergeist:

1) Pass WILL test to enter Barrows at the beginning
2) 1/3 chance to learn it from the ghost of the paladin in the shrine at Sleath
3) Pass WILL test in the Barbican to unlock automation armour
4) 1/6 chance (die roll) to learn from the wizard in the catacombs (if we asked him to help us with our powers)

I put these two as tied in terms of importance because their uses often overlaps (to get pass a physical barrier such as a door). Apparition gets points for being useful in more of those occasions (using Poltergeist sometimes attracts attention, or is sometimes not appropriate for the situation, such as when we're entering the gates of our castle). Poltergeist gets points for having more chances to learn them, and also for being specifically needed to unlock on puzzle - the armour. The good thing is that we can learn Poltergeist in the very section where we need to use it for the armour. Of course, like I said, the armour isn't really needed, even though it sounds really cool.

Generally, it's good to have one of the above 2 powers (I generally prefer Apparition), but you don't really need both.

6) Spectre

Opportunities to learn it:

1) 50/50 chance by agreeing to Mother Toadsfoot's price (Fool's Bargain)
2) Kill Van Richten and Streng in the main room of the Cockcrow Inn after entering without Shade (LUCK penalty involved)
3) Scare Madame Zelda to death in her tent (LUCK & SKILL penalty)
4) 1/6 chance (die roll) to learn from the wizard in the catacombs (if we asked him to help us with our powers

Definitely at the end of the list, I can't recall a "good" way to learn it (other than by random chance from the dead wizard), nor can I think of much situation where this would be the preferable option. This is supposed to help you scare people, but there are usually better alternatives to using this power. For example, we could have used it to intimidate Falstaff into opening the gates for us....but it's much better to use that opportunity to learn Spook instead! We could have used it on the castle guards when we tried to enter the castle...but guess what, we could have scared them away without the power. The difference is that without the power, the guards run away, and adds to the "alarm" factor (which means we may have to fight more of those wimpy Spirit Hunters later), but if we use Spectre, the guards scare to death, so no alarm is raised....but we lose LUCK point for that!

So yeah, this is the one power I don't think is worth learning, at all!
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Post by SGamerz »

Finally, before we end this, just a few miscellaneous stuff and pics we missed:

This is Van Richten and Streng, right before they attack us if we decided to show ourselves to the entire inn.
Image

---

If we took the red herring side-quest to Fetchfen, we get to fight this ancient Vampire Lord who has apparently devolved into a feral state after being forced to feed on dead animals for decades (because the village was abandoned long ago):
Image

There's no quest item to be gained (since the Spirit Stone is in another place), but we do get WILL bonus if we defeat this SKILL 11 monster.

There's no picture of the Winter King but he's also a SKILL 11 creature, and he'd be the one we need to beat for the Spirit Stone.

----

Remember the Nine Maidens circle of stones at the very beginning of the game which all of you want to avoid because you were suspicious of the word "lure"? That would actually have given us an instant 1+ Initial stat boost in every area (SKILL, STAMINA, LUCK and WILL). It does carry a risk of sending us to Hell (WILL test), but as you know by now, that's not Game Over anyway.

---

If we cut straight for home without any detours, we'd have met the ghost of an old knight who haunts and guards the road and will challenge us. But if we submit to him, there's actually a chance of him "passing on his mantle" to us and giving us a WILL boost.

---

We could have talked to our sister in the chapel....just make sure Umberto isn't there, as he will immediately try to protect our sister form the :foul spirit" that we are. Oriana could have given us some information, such as not to trust Unthank, and that our sword was brought down into the catacombs. One bad advice that she will give us would be to ask Father Umberto for help (Umberto doesn't give her a chance to talk before he banish us). We will also get the codeword "Oriana" from this conversation.

When we're ready to enter the Keep, the book checks us for the "Oriana" codeword. If we have it, we will see Oriana on the verge of being executed for "treason" against Unthank, lord of Valsinore. This would, of course, had been another damning evidence of his treachery.

We will in interrupt the execution, but Unthank will run off into the Keep with Oriana while his zombie executer keeps us busy:
Image

---

And for the end-scene:

- Using the Black Hourglass insta-kills Unthank. The Shadow King will still be summoned, but we won't have to fight Unthank's zombie again (this may be important, since we'd have lost our host body by than, so a weak character like Anvus will be thankful for it).

- Using the Jet Amulet, as mentioned, is bad.

- Using the Spirit Stone unleashes the spirits inside and they attack Unthank's coven, giving us the opportunity to get up close and stab Unthank personally (again, allowing us to avoid fighting his zombie later, but we do have to beat the SKILL 11 Unthank himself in normal combat with our host body). However, the Spirit Stone is best saved for later, against the Shadow King himself.

- Not using anything actually isn't too bad an option. We'd still be attacked by the Tenebrae things, but they're not too tough, as you saw, and we can use Banish Spirit on them.

Against the Shadow King himself:

- Using the Spirit Stone will insta-gib it. It's pretty much the same ending as using the Codex, as all the spirits trapped within the stone are unleashed and mob the Shadow King.

- The Oil of Midnight is good too, as it takes 2 SKILL off the Shadow King, leaving him at 11. So Someone like Anvus, armed with the Soul Shield and Amethyst Blade, will actually have a fair chance in a straight fight!

- Using Nightslayer in direct combat against the Shadow King gives us a +1 Attack Strength and +1 damage bonus. However, the Amethyst Blade also gives us +1 Attack Strength, and does 4 damage!

---

Without going into too much details, that's most of the memorable stuff I can remember. Once again, thanks to everyone for playing! Hope you enjoyed this....and will enjoy my next LP, too! :biggrin:
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

I really enjoyed this book. It was so radically different from the usual FF fare, and while it lost some points for its weird handling of information, it gained them back by being very forgiving. Definitely one of the good ones.
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Really interesting story. I was lucky enough to fall into a bunch of these books when I was 12-13 (along with the entire "Lone Wolf" path of books, Dragonmound of Faeriekind, Gnomes: 100 Dragons: 0; and I can't recall if there was any more); from a variety of heavy metal science fantasy settings; however the actual gameplay themselves didn't vary too much in the FF books.

At least two had countdowns to death (some fantasy "you got poisoned" with a "fill in the paper doll segments" death counter"; but at least one had a mech game; and an other had a space travel.. something (maybe?).

There was also a space [some sort of martialist, maybe a bount hunter] game where you had to complete a mounted gladiatoral duel for a plot NPC (and the maps for which were on the insides of the front & back, covers of the book).

I can't wait to see what the next book covered is.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SGamerz »

Judging__Eagle wrote: I can't wait to see what the next book covered is.
I'm actually having some problems deciding which FF book to try next. I still have a lot of those books yet to be covered, but most of them aren't really suitable for one-time playthroughs. Or the handful than can be completed in a single playthrough may not be very interesting (like the Stealer of Souls that I covered previously)

The one you mentioned that involved "time counter and filling up paper doll" is probably Daggers of Darkness, which actually does fall under one of the more "playable without cheating and constant restarts" ones, although I haven't tried running a Luke Sharp book thus far because his unique writing style probably isn't for everyone.

Anyway, the next LP I try won't be an FF one, but in the meantime while it's running I'm considering setting up a poll listing most of my FF books (minus the ones already done on this board) to see which one gets more interest from this board.

I may consider adding some of the Warlock magazine adventures too (although I myself only acquired them recently and am not that familiar with those compared to the books).
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Post by Silent Wayfarer »

There's a series of books called the Virtual Reality Adventures; they don't use dice, they just check to see if you have certain abilities and codewords and the adventure proceeds from there.

What is the most high-powered gamebook you've seen?
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