From the Introduction:"YOU are a hardy adventurer and have journeyed to the icy mountains of Mauristatia in search of great wealth and fortune... but what you find there makes your blood run cold. You discover by chance the terrible secret of the local villagers. Can YOU free them from the evil tyranny of the bloodthirsty Count, or will you too succumb to a horrifying fate?"
So, as stated in the poll thread, a pretty standard "kill the evil undead/magical/powerful overlord and rescue the damsel" quest."You have traveled lo the distant mountains of Mauristatia in search of legendary wealth and fortune. Halting over night at a lonely coaching inn, you wonder at the unfriendliness of the locals. Then an old woman breaks the silence€ and you learn of their terrible secret. They live in constant fed for their lives . . and their souls.
The whole village lives under the tyranny of the evil Count Heydrich. People vanish, never to be seen again, but everyone knows they have been taken to the castle where they die a terrible death at the hands of the bloodthirsty Count and his evil minions.
The old woman's granddaughter has just been taken and YOU must answer her pleas for help. You know it is a dangerous and awesome task, but you have to destroy the evil that haunts this place or meet a terrible end."
Standard FF Boilerplate rules:
Skill, Stamina, & Luck
SKILL score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. We roll a 4 and get 10 (Nice score)
STAMINA score: Roll two dice. Add 12 points to the result. We roll a 4+5 and get 21 (Not bad so far.....)
LUCK score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. We roll a 2 and get 8 (Yikes!)
SKILL score reflects your expertise in combat, your ability with weapons, and your dexterity. STAMINA is your general constitution and "Life points" . LUCK score shows how lucky you are. None of them may exceed their Initial score unless specifically stated.
Eating a meal restores up to 4 points of STAMINA; you may only eat one meal at a time.
Testing your Luck: When instructed by the book to test Test your Luck, roll two dice. If the result is equal to or less than your current LUCK score, you are Lucky. If the result exceeds your current LUCK score, you are Unlucky. Whatever the outcome, you must deduct one point from your current LUCK score every time you Test your Luck. The more you use your LUCK, the less likely you are to be Lucky.
STAMINA score: Roll two dice. Add 12 points to the result. We roll a 4+5 and get 21 (Not bad so far.....)
LUCK score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. We roll a 2 and get 8 (Yikes!)
SKILL score reflects your expertise in combat, your ability with weapons, and your dexterity. STAMINA is your general constitution and "Life points" . LUCK score shows how lucky you are. None of them may exceed their Initial score unless specifically stated.
Eating a meal restores up to 4 points of STAMINA; you may only eat one meal at a time.
Testing your Luck: When instructed by the book to test Test your Luck, roll two dice. If the result is equal to or less than your current LUCK score, you are Lucky. If the result exceeds your current LUCK score, you are Unlucky. Whatever the outcome, you must deduct one point from your current LUCK score every time you Test your Luck. The more you use your LUCK, the less likely you are to be Lucky.
SKILL and STAMINA scores are given in the text for each adversary that you face.
The combat sequence is then:
1. Roll two dice for your opponent. Add the total rolled to its SKILL score. This is the Attack Strength of your enemy.
2. Roll two dice and add the total to your own current SKILL score. This is your Attack Strength.
3. If your Attack Strength is the higher, you have wounded your opponent: deduct 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA..
If your opponent's Attack Strength is higher, it has wounded you: deduct 2 points from your own STAMINA.
If both Attack Strengths are equal, you have avoided each other's blows.
4. Begin the next Combat Round, starting again at step 1. This procedure continues until either you or your opponent has a STAMINA score of zero. If your opponent's STAMINA score reaches zero, you have killed it and can continue with your adventure. If your own STAMINA score reaches zero, you are dead.
Often you will have to fight more than one opponent at a time. Sometimes you will treat them as a single opponent; at others, you will be able to fight them one at a time; and sometimes all of them will be able to attack you, while you defend yourself and may attack only one of them. Specific instructions will be given whenever you meet more than one opponent.
Using Luck in Combat
You can use your LUCK in combat to inflict a particularly serious wound, or to minimize a wound that has been inflicted on you.
Whenever you wound an opponent, you may Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound: deduct an extra 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA. If you are Unlucky, you have merely grazed it, and you deduct 1 point less than normal from its STAMINA.
If you have been wounded, you can Test your Luck in exactly the same way. If you are Lucky, the wound upon you was only a glancing blow and you can deduct 1 less point of STAMINA than usual. If you are Unlucky, the wound is serious: deduct 1 extra point from your STAMINA.
The combat sequence is then:
1. Roll two dice for your opponent. Add the total rolled to its SKILL score. This is the Attack Strength of your enemy.
2. Roll two dice and add the total to your own current SKILL score. This is your Attack Strength.
3. If your Attack Strength is the higher, you have wounded your opponent: deduct 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA..
If your opponent's Attack Strength is higher, it has wounded you: deduct 2 points from your own STAMINA.
If both Attack Strengths are equal, you have avoided each other's blows.
4. Begin the next Combat Round, starting again at step 1. This procedure continues until either you or your opponent has a STAMINA score of zero. If your opponent's STAMINA score reaches zero, you have killed it and can continue with your adventure. If your own STAMINA score reaches zero, you are dead.
Often you will have to fight more than one opponent at a time. Sometimes you will treat them as a single opponent; at others, you will be able to fight them one at a time; and sometimes all of them will be able to attack you, while you defend yourself and may attack only one of them. Specific instructions will be given whenever you meet more than one opponent.
Using Luck in Combat
You can use your LUCK in combat to inflict a particularly serious wound, or to minimize a wound that has been inflicted on you.
Whenever you wound an opponent, you may Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound: deduct an extra 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA. If you are Unlucky, you have merely grazed it, and you deduct 1 point less than normal from its STAMINA.
If you have been wounded, you can Test your Luck in exactly the same way. If you are Lucky, the wound upon you was only a glancing blow and you can deduct 1 less point of STAMINA than usual. If you are Unlucky, the wound is serious: deduct 1 extra point from your STAMINA.
Faith score:
Roll one die, add 3 to this number and enter the total as Your Faith score. We roll a 4 and get 7
Your Faith score indicates your purity of heart and the strength of your belief in the forces of good. A high score enables you to force certain evil creatures to flee from you when they sense and fear your valour; but it also means that they are more likely to notice you and be hostile towards you!
Your Faith may be shaken by certain perils during your adventure, but it may also bee increased when you are victorious in very dangerous battles and when you find certain objects or relics of Good.
Your Faith score CAN be increased above its Initial value.
Your Faith score indicates your purity of heart and the strength of your belief in the forces of good. A high score enables you to force certain evil creatures to flee from you when they sense and fear your valour; but it also means that they are more likely to notice you and be hostile towards you!
Your Faith may be shaken by certain perils during your adventure, but it may also bee increased when you are victorious in very dangerous battles and when you find certain objects or relics of Good.
Your Faith score CAN be increased above its Initial value.
"The adventure you will embark on is very hazardous: monsters and traps are not the only dangers you will face! You may find yourself beset by certain Afflictions at some stage-curses or other disadvantages of an even more sinister nature - We won't spoil your fun by telling YOU exactly what these are; suffice it to say that if you suffer one or more Afflictions, you will be instructed about their effects in the relevant paragraphs. Fortunately, it is possible to rid yourself of them - if you are brave, wise and lucky!"
We are armed with a sword and dressed in leather armour; we also carry a shield. We have a backpack to hold Provisions and any treasures we may find. You also carry a lantern to light our way. Our backpack starts with enough Provisions for 10 meals, as per usual.
Here's a map provided in the front covers:
BACKGROUND:
I always thought that's a pretty rare awesome start to a gamebook. How often does an adventure starts with the big bad that the hero that's planning to kill actually sending transport and chauffeur to the hero offering to bring the hero to his doorsteps? And a Headless one at that! We don't even have to worry about being bugged by the cabbie's relentless chatter!Rumours of great wealth and treasure have lured you west of Femphrey in the Old World, to the forbidding land of Mauristatia, horne of unscalable peaks clad in ice and snow, obscured by great swathes of freezing mist. The air is cold and damp, and you are dressed in furs to keep out the chill. Hunched in a swaying coach heading north towards Mortvania, you wonder whether any of the rumours you have heard have any truth in them; people hereabouts are poorly fed and clothed, and this hardly seems a place of great riches! Still, perhaps that means that the treasures are still hidden and that the local folk haven't found them . . .
You are aroused from your reverie as the coach creaks to a halt. The coachmen open the doors and begin lowering trunks and bags from the roof You step out into a murky twilight; a thick winter fog is drawing in round the little coaching village of Leverhelven where you will rest tonight. The tavern is small and hardly luxurious, but the food is hot and the mulled wine is spiced and refreshing. But the local people, wary of strangers, talk little; after you enter, the tavern door is barred and the windows are already shuttered. The place has a strange name: the Hart's Blood - but this doesn't look like hunting country, except for those seeking bears or wolves for their pelts. You ask the tavern-keeper how the inn got its name, and a deathly hush descends in the room. He turns away, refusing to speak to you; you wonder how a polite and innocent question can have made him react in such a way. What's more, a man sitting by the fire tums round
and spits at your feet!
An old woman swathed in shawls and a peasant smock looks over at you and says, 'Furriners don't know no better.' You take her over a drink and ask her to tell you more - at least she's talking to you, which is more friendly than anyone else in here is. She gulps greedily a[ the warm wine. "Tain't no "Hart's Blood", stranger. Were never called that 'til
they changed the sign outside. 'Tis the Heart's Blood, see, h-e-a-r-t. That's what too many folk round 'ere has given up, their 'eart's blood!'
The low murmur of voices that had begun once more is completely silenced. Many people are casting fierce looks at you and the old woman and the barman bellows at her to be silent. But her face is flushed with the warmth and the wine, and she says she will not be unheard. "Tis the Count, damn his black heart; folk vanish from the village, they do, and are never seen again. The Count takes them up to the castle, to be sure, and there they die a terrible death. Terrible! There's folk as have heard the screams from the place, screams as from the souls in hell itself.' Now tears run down her old, weathered face. 'Didn't he take my grand-daughter only yesterday? Didn't we see the coach and the headless horseman in the village? My poor little Nastassia, such a beautiful, gentle girl, taken by the fiend 'imself, and not a man in this godforsaken place brave enough to Bo to the castle and save her!'
Embarrassed voices murmur round the room as sparks fly from the fire; the crackling of the burning wood seems to emphasize the old woman's desperate plea: 'I beg you, sir, to rescue her. She is only seventeen and she 'as done no harm to anyone. . .' she bursts into tears again.
A tall, red-haired man gets up from a table opposite and approaches you; you see he has only one arm, the right sleeve of his tunic being pinned up to his chest. 'Stranger, I take you for a wanderer, a seeker after adventure. What old Svetlana says is true: the Count is a terrible and evil soul, and Castle Heydrich is a place of horror. I would have tried to slay him myself, but for one obvious reason -' You nod as he glances down at his empty sleeve. 'Will you help us? From my own days as a warrior I have some gold put by, and it's yours gladly if you will help.' The eyes of all present turn to you, imploring your assistance
You are about to nod your agreement to this proposal when the door of the tavern bursts open. The people inside cry out in fear as an icy blast whips through the room. Outside in the mist you can male out a black coach with four jet-black steeds prancing and whinnying, and in the doorway stands a spectral figure. Bony fingers extend from black sleeves, and he beckons- you! But he says nothing - how could he? He has no head. . .
Now turn to paragraph 1.:
So, accept the free taxi, find our own way, or stab the driver in the fac...well, just stab him?You follow the beckoning figure outside into the swiping mists. It leaps up to the drive/s seat of the black coach and the carriage door swings open. The steeds prance expectantly, their breath steaming in
the cold air.
Will you:
Attack the Headless Horseman?
Get in the coach?
Ignore the coach, and ask a local peron how to get [o the Castle?
Also suggestions for a name for our soon-to-be heroic vampire-slayer are welcome!
Adventure Sheet:
Name: Blade Belmont von Alucard (still pending final decision)
SKILL 10/10
STAMINA 21/21
LUCK 8/8
Faith: 7/7
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Afflictions:
SKILL 10/10
STAMINA 21/21
LUCK 8/8
Faith: 7/7
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Afflictions:
