Turning and shooting Yurr received 3 votes, so No Name Nova will do this.
144
You stand your ground as the speeding car bears down on you, taking careful aim and firing rapidly at the crazed undead driver. Yurr is hit and the car suddenly swerves left, crashing head-on into the building at high speed before bursting into flames. The petrol tank ignites, causing a huge explosion which totally destroys the car. As you watch the burning wreck, you feel an incredible sense of relief. Lose in your own thoughts, you walk back towards the garage. Turn to 117.
117
The noise of the blazing inferno inside the car blocks out the sound of footsteps on the gravel behind you. Suddenly you hear an agonized scream as somebody jumps on your back. It’s Yurr, his face blackened and blistered from the fire and his charred body warm on your back. Despite being shot, burned and badly injured from the car crash, the undead madman is still not defeated. He tightens his grip around your neck and wrestles you to the ground, making you drop your gun. You must fight for your life barehanded. Yurr has 7 STAMINA points and is also fighting barehanded. If you win, turn to 44.
Round 1:
Player Damage: -2, Yurr Damage: 0
Player Stamina: 65, Yurr Stamina: 7
Round 2:
Player Damage: -1, Yurr Damage: -1
Player Stamina: 65, Yurr Stamina: 7
Round 3:
Player Damage: -2, Yurr Damage: 3
Player Stamina: 62, Yurr Stamina: 7
Round 4:
Player Damage: -2, Yurr Damage: 1
Player Stamina: 61, Yurr Stamina: 7
Round 5:
Player Damage: 0, Yurr Damage: -1
Player Stamina: 61, Yurr Stamina: 7
Round 6:
Player Damage: -1, Yurr Damage: -2
Player Stamina: 61, Yurr Stamina: 7
Round 7:
Player Damage: 1, Yurr Damage: -2
Player Stamina: 61, Yurr Stamina: 6
Round 8:
Player Damage: 1, Yurr Damage: -1
Player Stamina: 61, Yurr Stamina: 5
Round 9:
Player Damage: 2, Yurr Damage: 0
Player Stamina: 61, Yurr Stamina: 3
Round 10:
Player Damage: 2, Yurr Damage: 2
Player Stamina: 59, Yurr Stamina: 1
Round 11:
Player Damage: 3
Yurr Stamina: -2
44
You take no chances and pick up your gun to shoot Yurr several times, to make sure he is no longer a threat to the world. All you can think about is getting away from the castle as quickly as possible. You hurry into the garage to take a look at the van. If you have a set of car keys in your pocket, turn to 217. If you do not have a set of keys, turn to 96.
No Name Nova has a set of car keys.
217
You search through your pockets and find the keys you are looking for. You open the van door, jump into the driver’s seat and turn the key in the ignition. The starter motor whirrs for what seems like ages before the engine finally splutters into life, backfiring, and belching thick black smoke out of the exhaust. You put the van in gear and press down on the accelerator. The van lurches forward into the courtyard, engine misfiring. There is a sudden loud bang, caused by something landing on the cabin roof. A hideous face appears upside down in front of you, pressed against the windscreen. A lone Zombie has jumped down from the first floor window above the garage and onto the roof of the van. It begins hammering on the windscreen. You point your gun above you and shoot through the roof. The Zombie screeches in pain, rolls off the roof and hits the ground. Through the rear-view mirror you see it attempt to stand up again. You stop the van and get out, leaving the engine running. The bleeding Zombie stumbles towards you, arms outstretched, uttering the words ‘the enemy’ in a low, rasping voice. You shoot again and watch it drop face-down onto the ground, this time for good. You approach the body cautiously and slowly turn it over with your foot. Its jacket flops open and you see a tag sewn on the inside pocket, with the name Higson embroidered on it. Still alert, you scan the area, but seeing no more Zombies, you jump back in the van and drive up to the main gates, blasting the padlock off with a burst of gunfire. You toss your gun out of the window, crash through the gates, your foot pressed down on the accelerator. You speed through the forest and some ten minutes later you see a girl ahead of you walking along the road. Even from a distance you can see that she has long blonde hair and is wearing jeans and a t-shirt, so you recognize that it is Amy at once. You toot the horn and watch her turn around and wave frantically, jumping up and down with excitement. You drive up to her and stop. ‘Nice wheels,’ she says, laughing. You are relieved to see that she is safe and tell her to jump in. You drive off, admonishing her for walking alongside the road. She dismisses your lecture with a wave of the hand, as all she wants to hear about is the gruesome account of your battles with Gingrich Yurr and his army of Zombies. Turn to 400.
400
With the sun slipping slowly beneath the horizon, you arrive at a small village by the name of Melis. You go straight to the police station and report the horrific events that happened at Goraya Castle. There are only two policemen in the village. Both stare at you in disbelief when you relate your shocking tale. At first they threaten to arrest you, but finally agree to go to the castle in the morning to investigate. They tell you to go to the local inn but not to leave the village, as they will need to speak to you in the morning. You find rooms at a small guest house and after a much-needed shower you meet Amy downstairs for dinner. Neither of you are very hungry and you just talk endlessly about Gingrich Yurr. ‘So do you think you killed all the Zombies?’ Amy asks anxiously. You reply that you think you did, and certainly you hope you did. You go through all your battles, writing down the number of Zombies killed in each one. When you have counted up the total, turn to that number. If it is not the right number, turn to 165.
Fortunately for No Name Nova, our hero killed every single Zombie at Goraya Castle, so we will turn to section 333.
333
Amy looks at you intently as you recount all the battles one more time. Satisfied that you searched everywhere inside the castle and left no Zombies standing, you announce that you are certain you killed them all. ‘I certainly hope so,’ she replies, smiling. ‘If not, Melis will be the first village the Zombies come to and they will attack during the night. If I wake up in the morning, I’ll know you did kill them all!’ Turn to 225.
225
The next morning Amy wakes early to the sound of birds singing outside her window. The sun is shining and all is quiet and peaceful in the picturesque village of Melis. She opens the curtains and looks out onto the village square. People are busy setting up their market stalls, unaware that you have averted the apocalypse of the undead. You, however, did not sleep so well in your tiny bedroom in the attic. All night you thought about the events of the previous day, going through everything in your mind over and over again. You are positive that you checked all the rooms, but something is still bugging you. Suddenly it dawns on you – the skip in the courtyard! You didn’t look under the cover. You try to convince yourself that it was very unlikely that there were any Zombies hiding in a skip. Before long you have managed to dismiss the idea as paranoia. You go downstairs to meet Amy for breakfast. She talks excitedly about flying back to New York and you discuss how long you think the police will make you stay in Melis. Not long, as it turns out. Local politics intervene, and later in the morning you are told by the police that they do not believe your story after all. Not wanting to scare off any tourists with ridiculous rumours about Zombies, they have decided not to carry out an investigation, and have instead arranged for a taxi to take you to the railway station – immediately. Despite your protests, you are sent on your way. The following day Amy flies to New York. Back in England, your life eventually returns to normal at college. You end up graduating with the highest marks ever recorded for your dissertation.
Bonus victory entry:
As the long awaited doctorate of mythology is granted to No Name Nova on the graduation stage, No Name Nova begins to think about what job to pursue afterwards. Who would want to hire someone with a mythology doctorate? Being a teacher was anathema to No Name Nova due to the disheartening process of preparing lectures, and many companies viewed such degrees as signs of being a loony, to say the least. No Name Nova was stuck, and trying to find a steady income was going to be a challenge soon enough.
With no other ideas, No Name Nova decides to become a researcher and begins the long process of finding enough suckers to obtain funding for important sounding endeavors. Who knows, No Name Nova might strike it rich with a groundbreaking discovery or two.
Pheeww! It took 5 resurrections and 17 pages of content, but we successfully finished the worst designed Fighting Fantasy gamebook on record and uncovered every single secret to boot. Give yourselves a very long round of applause, not only for completing this adventure, but also finishing the original Fighting Fantasy series published by Puffin Books *and* by Wizard Books! That is a massive accomplishment for any forum to achieve. Hopefully it will allow this forum to stand out among the Internet’s many message boards in a good way.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this Let’s Play, as well as in my previous threads that date back to December 2021.
So here’s the deal with my future plans: According to the latest news from Holmgard Press, the last two books of the Magnakai series planned to be shipped to those who pre-ordered them starting in January 4, but I have not received any confirmation whether the books are indeed available. Even if they are (which is doubtful), they are currently only available in hardbacks, and my financial situation is still not stable enough to be able to purchase all 7 Magnakai books right now. Also, I do not believe that I can commit the time to run the Magnakai series right now, as I estimate that doing so would take at least 9 months to complete, based on what my work looks like this year.
So that leaves me with Crystal of Storms, which I am tentatively confident that I can run as the next Let’s Play if there is enough interest for this. However, I do not have any experience with playing this particular adventure, and there is a risk of something going wrong. I have read some reviews of this book, and it looks like running this will require some adjustments so that we can run Crystal of Storms without the Let’s Play being a tedious reading experience. While I will still need to figure out what adjustments will be necessary, I can say for sure that I will not be giving our hero 6 resurrections like this adventure. Any adjustments that I do will be designed to prevent excessive rewinding in case our hero dies or gets stuck.
With that in mind, is there any interest in a Let’s Play for Crystal of Storms? I am looking to have at least 3 people, preferably more, show interest in this before I officially commit to it. If anyone is able to provide me with a pdf or a copy of the book, that would also be appreciated, as that would allow me to be able to hopefully purchase a wider selection of books for future Let’s Plays.
For now, I will be taking a break from hosting, as I am super exhausted and am trying to save up energy and time to handle my work projects. I hope that everyone understands the need for this.
Adventure Sheet
No Name Nova
STAMINA: 59
INFORMATION:
Username is White Rabbit
Roznik is owed $100 for blood
Secret door code is 161
DOLLARS $: 42
ITEMS AND EQUIPMENT:
String
Small Key Stamped With ‘9’
Wallet
Yellow Notepaper Printed With ‘combination lock number: 181’
Brass Key Stamped With ‘111’
Car Keys
Pair of Silver Frog-shaped Cufflinks
Notebook Page Written With ‘Password reminder: my car’
Set of Keys Each Stamped With No. 1 Through No. 8
Main Gate Key
MED KITS:
None
WEAPONS: DAMAGE
Barehanded: 1d6-3
Small Penknife: 1d6-2
GRENADES: 2 (2d6+1)
TOTAL NUMBER OF ZOMBIES KILLED: 333
RESURRECTIONS: 1