Let's Play Fighting Fantasy #18 Rebel Planet

[Darth Rabbitt]

Admit.

[Starmaker]

Admit.

[Mr Shine]

You smile at Musca, as if to say, 'It's all right', and unlock the door to the other Arcadian, who is carrying a phaser! Musca must be important, if a phaser has been issued from the arsenal to guard him. You are now committed to a bold and risky course of action- You will have to get rid of Musca's 'friend', but against a phaser you stand no chance in direct combat. Will you tell the other Arcadian that you know everything or let him take Musca away for the time being?

[angelfromanotherpin]

Let him go. This guard will have to turn his back to leave, and then BAM! The old lightsaber-in-the-kidneys.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Let him go. This guard will have to turn his back to leave, and then BAM! The old lightsaber-in-the-kidneys.

This, so much this.

[Mr Shine]

In the morning, you knock on the door of the Arcadians' quarters, with the pretext of inquiring after Musca's health. The other Arcadian answers your knock, opens the door a fraction and tells you to go away. Will you do as he says, and await another opportunity or kick in the door?

[Darth Rabbitt]

There's been enough waiting. Kick in the door and stab the guard in the face if he gives us any lip.

[Mr Shine]

Test your Luck If you are Lucky, if you are Unlucky

5 is lucky

He is not expecting this; the door crashes into him and sends his phaser flying under the sensorama console You both draw your swords simultaneously.

ARCADIAN SKILL 7 STAMlNA 8

Jim 21 Arcadian 9 Arcadian at 6 (perfect round!!)
Jim 13 Arcadian 11 Arcadian at 4
Jim 16 Arcadian 18 Jim at 19
Jim 15 Arcadian 17 Jim at 17
Jim 17 Arcadian 15 Arcadian at 2
Jim 17 Arcadian 19 Jim at 15
Jim 19 Arcadian 11 Arcadian dead

If you win,

Musca remained surpisingly calm throughout the fight, but starts to grovel rather embarrassingly in front of you when you have won. You take advantage of the situation and order him to tell you what he knows about the computer on Arcadion. In a halting voice, he tells you that he knows nothing, but that the dead Arcadian knew more. However, you do find out that one of ihe Arcadian arsenals is in the basement of the computer building, and that its entry-code is 110 Cain 1 LUCK point_ You are now nearing Arcadion itself;

when you arrive at the spaceport of the capital city of Arcadion, you dare not take the phaser, In case of being searched. You quickly get through the spaceport officials, on the pretence of taking this opportunity to see around 'the glorious centre of our illustrious Empire', as you put it You calculate :hat you have a lead of about half an hour, while the two Arcadians are missed and discovered, and the authorities guess where you have gone; so you must not spend too long getting to the computer building.

There are very few humans on Arcadion, and you have no time to waste. \You approach the first human you meet and ask him the way to the computer building. He tells you the way with some enthusiasm, as if he was proud to help a stranger find the centre of the Empire If you go straight to the computer building√ If you need to know where an arsenal is and, bearing in mind that you will probably meet no other humans, you want to ask this person where it is,

You are nearing the end of your mission You have reached the outside of the long, low building where the queen computer is housed but you know that an Arcadian patrol is not far behind, On the wall by the entrance is a panel consisting of a liquid crystal display and two buttons, marked 1 and 0 This is what your whole adventure so far has been aiming at- do you have the correct code? You will have to enter the code for the door to open. Convert the binary number to decimal, and turn to the Paragraph with that number. If the paragraph makes no sense, you have not entered the correct code, and will be caught by the Arcadian patrol. [description of how to convert]

For ease of reference here is what we know:

It is a 9 digit binary code and we have found out the following.

Bellatrix:

'I’ll tell you what I know. It's not much after all your efforts, I'm afraid. Rumour has it that the Northern Arcadians made up a marching song to help them remember a sequence of three of the digits. I don't know what they are, however, or where this sequence comes in the whole series of digits; but here's the song, for what it's worth.'

Oh! Mortal combat is such joy
No messing about, no subtle pIoy
Empire of Arcadian! Empire of Arcadion!
Onward, ever onward!
Open pitched battles make me high:
Never mind the odds - let's do or die!
Evermore Arcadion! Empire of Arcadion!'

Zacharias:

(book on desk called "the first century")


Dorado:
'l know none of the digits,' he begins, and your heart sinks 'All l know is that the whole sequence of digits is a palindrome - it is the same written forwards or backwards'

Darth Rabbitt suggested earlier either 101101101 or 101111101 . Do you want to go with one or the other or a different guess?

Jim, the Cheddar Monk
SK 9/9 ST 15/21 LU 5/11
2585 Credits
Laser Sword
Mind Probe

Running total of deaths: 5
Running total of non-fatal Game Overs: 2

[Darth Rabbitt]

I think it's my first guess of those two. But if anyone else has guesses I'm game for those instead.

[Starmaker]

Since the author expects us to arrive at a well-reasoned conclusion and there are way too many plausible variants (I got like 5 trying to fit in a '100' as in 'century'), how about some random assumptions?
- no overlapping digits
- that other book with 1s and 0s counts
Which gives us 101, 100, and 00 for a total of 8 digits and let's grab a 1 from "first century".
100101001 = 297

[angelfromanotherpin]

I guess 222.
edit: I hate binary so bad.

[Starmaker]

I guess 222.
edit: I hate binary so bad.

011011110, not a palindrome.

(Second guess is 001101100 for 108, but I have higher hopes for 297 because of "first century").

[Mr Shine]

Since DR said he would step aside, I'll go with Starmaker's answer.

My interpretation:

Start with Zacharias; "First Century"="first set of 3 in the sequence", only continuous set of 3 binary numbers visible is 100, so "first 3 digits are 100", then go to Dorado, giving 100XXX001. The only possible way that 101 can now appear is by taking over the Xs. There is no other place to slot it in.

Well done!The door slides open easily and lets you into an ante-chamber before sliding shut again be-hind you. Only then do the next doors open - and there are four more sets of doors; this is to keep the building as free as possible from dust. Once inside, you can see the computer room ahead, but there are also some steps down to a basement. Will you go straight to the computer room or down to the basement first√

The door to the basement is ten centimetre reinforced laser-proof criton. No way are you going to get through that!But there is a small panel similar to the one you encountered on the outside of this building If you know the code, turn to the paragraph whose decimal number looks the same as this binary number.√ Otherwise you return to the computer room.

Now you are inside an arsenal, which stretches away underground for many metres It would be an understatement to say that you could start a revolution with this lot, you could annihilate the galaxy!

But your requirements are not so extreme. You have time to take any two of the following: a sealed tube of elmonite explosive, a limpet mine, a photon grenade, a hand-phaser, and an infra-red scanner.

[angelfromanotherpin]

My instinct would be to go for the phaser that so intimidated us and the IR scanner for utility. But there are three explosives there so it seems like an attempt to get the player to take at least one explosive.

Take the limpet mine and the IR scanner.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I'd be down with that.

[Mr Shine]

As you leave the arsenal, the door hisses shut behind you, and a mechanical voice says: 'The entry code is now changed The new, code will be circulated to authorized personnel.' That's a security device you hadn't expected; there'll be no returning to the arsenal then. Your next problem is that because of the size of the arsenal, it took quite a time to find the items you needed, and you emerge from the stairs to be confronted by an Arcadian patrol. You can use against them nothing that you may have taken from the arsenal except a photon grenade and a hand-phaser- If you use the grenade, if you use the phaser, if you have neither of these, you are dead√

Let's try again

But your requirements are not so extreme. You have time to take any two of the following: a sealed tube of elmonite explosive, a limpet mine, a photon grenade, a hand-phaser, and an infra-red scanner.

Jim, the Cheddar Monk
SK 9/9 ST 15/21 LU 5/11
2585 Credits
Laser Sword
Mind Probe

Running total of deaths: 6
Running total of non-fatal Game Overs: 2

[Darth Rabbitt]

Mine and the phaser.

[Mr Shine]

The phaser cuts down two members of the patrol, but then jams, presumably because it has not been used for a long time- You hurl it away in disgust. You will have to draw your sword to fight the remaining two. Roll one die. lf the number is even√ if it is odd,

One of the remaining Arcadians is a Northerner, so for every Attack Round that he is alive, roll an extra die. On 5 or 6 he hits you with his tail, causing 2 STAMINA points of injury, whatever the result of that Attack Round otherwise You will have to fight these two simultaneously, so choose which one you are attacking, and conduct a normal Attack Round against him. The other gets a free attack against you: roll for Attack Strengths as usual, but nothing happens unless his Attack Strength is higher, in which case he wounds you.

NORTH ARCADIAN SKILL 6 STAMINA 8
SECOND ARCADlAN SKILL 6 STAMINA 6

Jim 15 North Arcadian 16 Other Arcadian 16: Jim at 11
Jim 17 North Arcadian 11 Other Arcadian 13 tail attack success: North Arcadian at 6, Jim at 9
Jim 16 North Arcadian 11 Other Arcadian 10: North Arcadian at 4
Jim 13 North Arcadian 14 Other Arcadian 11: Jim at 7
Jim 19 North Arcadian 12 Other Arcadian 12: North Arcadian at 2
Jim 12 North Arcadian 13 Other Arcadian 14: Jim at 3
Jim 19 North Arcadian 8 Other Arcadian 13 tail attack successful: Jim at 1, North Arcadian dead
Jim 13 Other Arcadian 12: Other Arcadian at 4
Jim 14 Other Arcadian 14: no change
Jim 19 Other Arcadian 13: Other Arcadian at 2
Jim 15 Other Arcadian 11: Other Arcadian dead

Phew!

If you win,

There is nothing to prevent you entering the computer room, but you know you will have to work fast once you're in there. The first door is locked, but can be broken easily; then there is the usual sequence of doors to protect the computers from dust- then you are inside.


The gleaming, sterile surfaces of the several component computers are set against the walls of quite a small room. To think that so much power could be contained in to little space! But there is no time for such reflections- how will you go about sabotaging the organic monstrosity? Three of the component computers are larger than the others, and they are placed in the centre of each wall. (The fourth wall has the door which you have just come through.) So they look like the ones you ought to concentrate on. You also notice that all the computers are covered with a casing, which you assume to be some method of regulating their surrounding temperature. Which of the following will you use?

Wire-cutters
Photon grenade
Elmonite
Limpet mine√
Laser sword√
Infra-red scanner
Phaser

Laser Sword:

There is nothing you can do with a laser sword,
unless you can get to the bowels of the computers,
by removing the casing. Is this what you choose to
do?

Mine:

The problem with this is that you have only one
mine, and its blast will not knock out all three
computers. Which will you choose: the left computer, the right one or the one against the wall opposite the door?

[Darth Rabbitt]

I don't see any clue on which one to destroy (if anyone does know, feel free to correct me), so let's blow up the middle one.

[Mr Shine]

You dash outside to wait for the explosion - and come face to face with a platoon of North Arcadians, spiked tails restlessly swinging from side to side. Curiously, they sense that you are expecting something, so they do not immediately rush in for the kill, but wait to see what will happen The explosion seems to take forever in coming but there it is! Then, the Arcadians close in. You must have done something wrong...

So you can go here

There is nothing you can do with a laser sword, unless you can get to the bowels of the computers, by removing the casing. Is this what you choose to do?

Back to here

The problem with this is that you have only one mine, and its blast will not knock out all three computers. Which will you choose: the left computer, the right one or the one against the wall opposite the door?

Or back to here.

But your requirements are not so extreme. You have time to take any two of the following: a sealed tube of elmonite explosive, a limpet mine, a photon grenade, a hand-phaser, and an infra-red scanner.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Let's try removing the casing this time; it seems more likely to work (or at least give us a hint) than choosing randomly what computer to blow up, which begs the question as to why I thought doing exactly that was a good idea before.

[Mr Shine]

Whatever method you have used for removing the casing your death will follow soon, as the liquid helium you have released floods over the floor, and freezes your feet before it evaporates. With all feeling gone in your feet, you fall over, snapping them off at the ankles.

So back to

The problem with this is that you have only one mine, and its blast will not knock out all three computers. Which will you choose: the left computer, the right one or the one against the wall opposite the door?

or

But your requirements are not so extreme. You have time to take any two of the following: a sealed tube of elmonite explosive, a limpet mine, a photon grenade, a hand-phaser, and an infra-red scanner.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Try taking the grenade and the scanner. I suspect that with the scanner and the sword we can do the requisite damage without getting froze.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Sounds good to me.

[Mr Shine]

Using grenade instead of phaser:

You toss the grenade and duck back down the stairs to avoid the blast. When you climb back up, there is little sign of the patrol -or the doors, for that matter.

Using infra-red scanner:

This is a very handsome, very finely crafted piece of equipment - but of no use whatsoever under the present circumstances.

So, death by cold or death by Arcadian, either way death's acomin' again


So back to

The problem with this is that you have only one mine, and its blast will not knock out all three computers. Which will you choose: the left computer, the right one or the one against the wall opposite the door?

or

But your requirements are not so extreme. You have time to take any two of the following: a sealed tube of elmonite explosive, a limpet mine, a photon grenade, a hand-phaser, and an infra-red scanner.

Jim, the Cheddar Monk 
SK 9/9 ST 15/21 LU 5/11 
2585 Credits 
Laser Sword 
Mind Probe 

Deaths on Tropos, Radix, Halmuris or on-board ship: 5 
Deaths in Arcadion computer building: 4
Running total of non-fatal Game Overs: 2