[LP] Lesser-Known Gamebooks: The Cretan Chronicles.

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

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CapnTthePirateG
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Post by CapnTthePirateG »

Did we actually do anything bad other than die in battle?
OgreBattle wrote:"And thus the denizens learned that hating Shadzar was the only thing they had in common, and with him gone they turned their venom upon each other"
-Sarpadian Empires, vol. I
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Depends what you mean by bad. Certainly there was the time spent drinking with dissolutes that could probably have been spent more profitably. But as I mentioned in the intro, there's a lot of room to just try different things and see what else is going on in the social web.
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

So all this bull leaping and acrobatics amounted to nothing.

Yeah, sure, try again with Theseus' sword, even though I still think we should leave the dead lie. Getting your soul to Tarterus for eternity is as bad an ending as we'll ever get, so meh.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Sirocco wrote:So all this bull leaping and acrobatics amounted to nothing.
Yeah, that's one of the big disappointments of the book; that bull-leaping only gives a buff for the match with Kremton, not for the showdown with the Minotaur.

<rewind sound>
You bend down and for a moment you look at the sword almost fondly, remembering those happy days long ago in Troezen when Theseus still lived and the destinies of the gods had not brought him to his doom. You pick it up, and are, at that very moment, struck by something from behind. You feel a pain beyond anything you have ever felt, a blinding white light, and a sense of fear and hatred, as you are propelled across the chamber. You strike your head against the wall, blood fills your eyes, and for a moment there is darkness.

You gather your senses quickly, and turn round unsteadily. There, about to charge again, is the Minotaur, its razor-sharp horns stippled in your blood, its eyes glowing like fires, and its human hands held high as though in triumph. Salt sweat drips from your brow as you brace yourself for the fight.

The Minotaur is Might *15, Protection 22. You sword has Might 5/*8, Protection 5/*8. Because this sword is divinely worked, it is more effective against divine or divinely built creatures, which are marked in the text with asterisks.

Because of the blow to your head, you are already Wounded.
Well, Theseus' blade is OP, but remember that at the very least it's there for players who did not complete the previous book (none of the pregens start with Hephaestus' gifts). With it and the divine breastplate, Altheus' Defense goes to 24, which means that even though the Minotaur's sucker-punch leaves Al in a position where he can't afford to be wounded again, he's not likely to be.
Altheus spends 4 Honour. Altheus rolls 11 (autohit). The minotaur is wounded!
Altheus spends 2 Honour. The Minotaur rolls 6 +15 Might -2 spend = 19. A miss!
Altheus spends 4 Honour. Altheus rolls 7 +4 Might +8 weapon +4 spend = 23. The Minotaur is hit again!
Ah, Altheus, not so easily can the Minotaur be destroyed. Its thick hide and evil heart sustain it and turn aside your blows. The Minotaur will fight as though the last hit did not take effect (and is therefore not Seriously Wounded, and needs two more hits to kill it).
Altheus spends 2 Honour. The Minotaur rolls 10 +15 Might -2 spend = 23. A very near miss!
Altheus spends 4 Honour. Altheus rolls 7 +4 Might +8 weapon +4 spend = 23. The Minotaur is now Seriously Wounded for reals! The Minotaur can no longer hit Altheus!
Altheus rolls 5.
Altheus rolls 10.
The Minotaur is slain!
The beast crumples under your blows, and falls wheezing to the ground. Even now you can feel pity in your heart for the monster, but dare not finish it off, for it may be like the wounded lioness cornered in her lair, more dangerous than ever, who tears at the hunter who has destroyed her, and they both depart this earth in the same breath. Yellow liquid oozes from the Minotaur's eyes. and it coughs up blood which foams for a moment on the floor, before you rub it in with your heel. So, adventurous Altheus, will your spirit be for ever stained with the blood of the creature you have killed; for when you look the life has gone out of the beast, its eyes are glazed, its ribs no longer rise and fall, tormented by its pain.

Stunned, you stare at the carcass for a moment, unable to believe that you have overcome. Surely the gods must have smiled on you, to give you strength to fight against such a thing. Tentatively you touch the death-white horns, but they are so sharp that you cut yourself and drops of your blood mingle with that of the Minotaur.

At last you have avenged the death of your brother, and freed Athens from the tyranny of the sacrifice. Your mother Aethra wuld be proud of her son now. You may have 15 Honour points.

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A deep rumbling sound disturbs your thoughts of triump, soft at first, but growing stronger. The ground beneath you begins to shake, the walls vibrate, and cracks appear before you in the very earth. You stand paralyzed by fear, as the labyrinth of Minos begins to shatter around you. Poseidon the Earthshaker visits Crete with his favours!

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You are shaken out of your trance by a rush of tiny fragments of masonry which strike your head before tumbling to the floor. You take refuge in a corner, trying in vain to shield your head with your hands. The whole roof now seems to collapse, as the handiwork of Daedalus disintegrates. Huge pieces of the ceiling fall round you, and you see the corpse of the Minotaur covered in the debris; a fitting burial indeed for such a beast. There is one last great tremor, like the roar of the torrent which sweeps down the valley and carries away all in its path, laying low the walls of the city, and freeing for a brief moment the slaves taken in the wars, and all is death and silence.

Amazed that you have survived, you stand, shake off the dust, and begin to clamber unsteadily through the ruins of the Labyrinth.

• Is Poseidon your patron? X
You slip and fall, grazing your forehead against a rock. Blood clouds your eyes and you dimly discern a more than human figure ahead. Panic grips you as you realize it is Poseidon himself, master of the earthquake.

'You have killed my Minotaur, Altheus, and you shall not be forgiven or unpunished. Your brother would never have angered me thus. Know, then, that you have earned my enmity, and expect my vengeance when you travel the wide waters. And when men ask why you suffer, tell them you bear the wrath of Poseidon, wave-master, horse-tamer, lord of the tremblings of Earth herself, Poseidon the untamed, Posiedon the untameable.'

With this the god vanishes. You are alone once more. You are now in Disfavour with Poseidon.
• Were you, while travelling in the labyrinth, unravelling a ball of string? &#8730;
The dust in the air is almost unbearable now, but you are determined to escape from the ruined labyrinth. You cogh with each harsh breath, and your eyes stream, blurring your vision. Each step must be closer to safety, you mutter to yourself, without any real conviction. The thread leads on into the dust-storm ahead and snakes out of sight in a pile of rocks.

• Pause until the air has cleared?
• Try to clear a way through the rocks?
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

Well. I'll be. It worked!

(re: Poseidon's enmity) Altheus can at least take solace in the knowledge that he now belongs to a very special group of people, which includes Odysseus himself.
Dr_Noface
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Post by Dr_Noface »

fuck really, add the lioness metaphor to the pile
SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

Sirocco wrote:So all this bull leaping and acrobatics amounted to nothing.
Well, it gave us back most of the Endurance we lost via getting drunk, so that counts for something, but yeah, not being useful against the Minotaur was a major disappointment to almost every reader who came across that side path, I'm sure.
You are indeed right to shake at the sight of the Minotaur, for, after all, your brother, a distant relative of the beast, was not spared its wrath. Theseus was probably in fact only your half-brother (have 1 Shame point), with Poseidon as his true father. Although the origins of the bull which sired the Minotaur are shrouded in sea-spray, according to the most reputable sources Poseidon had a hand in its conception. The bull ravished Minos' wife, Pasiphae, who gave birth to the Minotaur. Theseus was the half-uncle of the Minotaur. For unravelling the genealogical complexities of the situation at such a stressful moment, have 3 Honour points.
I still consider this to be the most classic paragraph out of all 3 books in this series. :biggrin:
'You have killed my Minotaur, Altheus, and you shall not be forgiven or unpunished. Your brother would never have angered me thus. Know, then, that you have earned my enmity, and expect my vengeance when you travel the wide waters. And when men ask why you suffer, tell them you bear the wrath of Poseidon, wave-master, horse-tamer, lord of the tremblings of Earth herself, Poseidon the untamed, Posiedon the untameable.'
......Because our brother was too much of a wuss and got his ass gored by your Minotaur. It wasn't that he chose not to anger you, he failed!

For all the idiotic things Altheus does, one thing you can say for him is that he's at least proven to be more competent than his legendary brother despite his mere-mortal lineage. Even if he tried to use a ball of thread as a talisman.

Then again, maybe Theseus did actually eat the thread, too. One wonders if they might have both inherited their mental capacity from their mother (we don't really know how smart she is, do we?)

Anyway, clear a path now. I think we want to get out fast in case the entire maze caves in.
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

Yeah sorry, forgot to vote. Clear a path.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Sirocco wrote:Altheus can at least take solace in the knowledge that he now belongs to a very special group of people, which includes Odysseus himself.
Well, Altheus is unlikely to take solace in that, as these events take place well before the Trojan War. You'll note that the authors are pretty scrupulous about not referencing any of those events in their allusions.
You did away at the rock-fall with your bare hands, and soon your fingernails are bloody and painful. The thread is stuck fast and it takes a long time to move all the rocks. Eventually the wool is freed and you can continue to follow it back to the entrance.

• Do so?
• Rest to recover?
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

I stand duly corrected; indeed, the Minoan civilization predates the Trojan War by a few centuries.

We fought and defeated the mighty Minotaur, I think we can survive a couple of bloody fingernails. Keep walking.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Continue on, we don't know how long the wrecked Labyrinth will stay intact with the boulders removed.

What happens if Poseidon is Altheus' patron?
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:What happens if Poseidon is Altheus' patron?
He doesn't give you his Disfavour. Which makes the continual string of shipwrecks you suffer in book 3 even less sensical.
You walk briskly along the line of the thread, winding it up as you go. The ball of wool grows quickly until it is almost the size it was when you acquired it. Still there is no sign of the entrance, but the thread gives you hope. It seems to take for ever for the ball to grow complete, and you start to walk faster, winding in furiously. You are so intent on the ball of wool that you run straight into someone standing over the thread. With a start you realize it is a woman, dressed in blue, and suddenly you recognize her.
'Ariadne,' you cry, 'what are you doing in the labyrinth?'

'I've come to find you,' the princess replies. 'No follow me: we must get away quickly.' Too dazed to resist, you are led away by Ariadne.
She knows the maze well and soon you emerge into sunlight. The air is fresh and warm but you can only linger for a moment before Ariadne is off again. 'There's no time to waste; we've got to get away now,' she says, as you both hurry through the rough scrub that lies between the harbour and the city.

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In the harbour you find a small boat moored discreetly to one side. 'This is my boat,' announces Ariadne. 'Hurry!' You clamber aboard and, while she deftly runs the dail up, you hack at the mooring-rope until it severs. The sailsfill with wind and the boat begins to run out to sea, striking out to the north-east. You flop down in the stern with Ariadne.
'We should be safe now,' you say confidently. 'They'll never be able to stop us. My ship should be in sight any moment now and...'

Your words are interrupted by Ariadne, who engages you in a long, lingering kiss. 'Marry me, Altheus,' she demands a moment later, 'marry me, my prince.' You can only agree.
Nothing gets Altheus hot like inappropriately-accelerated commitment, apparently. Oh, yeah!
Back on the ship, the captain greets you with delight, as the seven youths and seven maidens, who have also escaped, feared you slain. You wink at the one who looks like your mother and she smiles at you gladly. As the captain shows you to a cabin below decks, the crew begin to row with long, powerful strokes away from this accursed island. You take one last look at Crete, to which you came a boy, but which you leave a prince and a husband, Altheus the Avenger. Yet on the horizon the winds of strife are stirring.

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The adventure continues in the third book of the Cretan Chronicles, The Return of the Wanderer.
And that's book. I'm a little bummed we missed the final confrontation with Minos, though I don't recall exactly what we did to miss it. It's pretty sweet to get closure with that manipulative asshole.

We also missed a lot of intrigue. Thaisia, who was our greeter and seems to have just faded away, is actually a spy. Depending on god relations and choices, she can screw you over, turn to your side, or be transformed into a jackal. And that's besides all the personal drama with Psyche and Lactris and such. There's a lot to catch if you have the interest.

I'll put up some more missed content later. If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer those as well.
Mr Shine
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Post by Mr Shine »

Does any of that intrigue translate into anything of actual help against the Minotaur? (aka "is this going to be on the test?")
Last edited by Mr Shine on Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Mr Shine wrote:Does any of that intrigue translate into anything of actual help against the Minotaur? (aka "is this going to be on the test?")
Only indirectly, as in more Honour to spend in the fight. Although poor intriguing can definitely hurt you, you can get poisoned, imprisoned and stripped of your weapons, crossbow-bolted and at a permanent Might penalty, and so on.


Anyway, missed content...
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This slightly risque Aphrodite shows up to convince you not to violence Ariadne.
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Ariadne showing up to get you out of prison.
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You can walk in on Opris and Noa macking, which gives you Shame for reasons that are entirely British.
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This is the one that everyone remembers; Demeter transmogrifying her twisted priest into an inanimate figure of fruit that just tumbles apart.
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A fellow named Boloris lives behind these booby-trapped GIANT FROG! carvings.
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A very upset Psyche glasses poor Lactris.
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One room in the labyrinth is just full of bull's heads. It's like an episode of Hannibal up in there.
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Thaisia mid-way through being turned into a jackal by Apollo.
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Minos, ready to take vengeance on the minotaur-slayer. Or he thinks he is. If you can take the minotaur, this guy's no trouble.
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Thaisia at her mother's house, and a ball of wool you can yoink.
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Kremton, getting in your face over Thaisia, who set you both up for it.
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This is the ghost of one of the minotaur's previous victims that you can glimpse in the labyrinth.
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Thaisia, murdering you by stabbing the hand you were trying to use to not fall off a cliff.
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