[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 38 - Vault of the Vampire

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Which of the below should be the official name of our hero?

Blade Belmont von Alucard
3
43%
Blade Bellend von Alucard
1
14%
Blade Bellendmont von Alucard
2
29%
Blade Bellerophont von Alucard
1
14%
 
Total votes: 7

Laertes
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Post by Laertes »

We should be at STAMINA 19 due to the Ring of Regeneration, n'est ce pas?

I say grant the girl the release she's been aching for. I'm not sure what to do with the other two actions.
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Post by SGamerz »

Laertes wrote:We should be at STAMINA 19 due to the Ring of Regeneration, n'est ce pas?

I say grant the girl the release she's been aching for. I'm not sure what to do with the other two actions.
The text stated that the ring works when we "land the killing blow in a battle". In this case, we didn't get the killing blow. The Count got away before we could.
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Post by Sirocco »

(Our STAMINA should be at 19 with the Ring.)

Take out the Crucifix and free the girl. I guess we already have the Silver Mirror out, so it doesn't count as a move, right?

ETA: Ninja'd. Yeah, you're right. Drink the brandy then with our last action to go to full STAMINA. No sense saving it.
Last edited by Sirocco on Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Silent Wayfarer »

Save the girl, draw forth the crucifix, nom the brandy.
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Post by SGamerz »

The consensus seems to be to free the girl, drink the Brandy (back to full STAMINA) and taking out the Crucifix.....
The Vampire reappears in the room in human form! Add 8 points to the STAMINA score he had when he escaped. Fight him again, and if you manage to reduce his STAMINA score to 4 or below once more, turn at once to 212.
So now the stats stand at:

Count Reiner: SK 13 STAMINA 12
Blade: SK 12 STAMINA 21

Round 2: FIGHT!

COMBAT LOG:
Count 20, Blade 21. Count is at 10.
Count 20, Blade 16. Blade is at 19.
Count 24, Blade 17. Blade is at 17.
Count 20, Blade 18. Blade is at 15.
Count 17, Blade 22. Count is at 8.
Count 16, Blade 20. Count is at 6.
Count 19, Blade 17. Blade is at 13.
Count 20, Blade 22. Count is at 4, again!
In desperation, the Count will try to bite your throat rather than batter you with his fists. You may subtract 2 from his SKILL when he tries this biting attack. His bite causes normal damage (2 points) on the first hit -unless you have the Curse of the Healer (if you do, his bite causes double damage - 4 points!). If the Count bites you twice, turn at once to 268. If you win, turn to 339.
Since there seems to be a special penalty here, I'll try to speed it up....

COMBAT CONTNUES:
Count 17, Blade 17. Tie. (he would have bitten us if it wasn't for the -2 SKILL penalty!)
Count 18, Blade 20. Luck test: we roll a 6 (Lucky!) Count loses his last 4 STAMINA and is DEAD!
You drive home what you know is a killing blow. With an inhuman shriek the Count's body crumples and is slowly transformed into a cloud of gas. Check the Notes box on your Adventure Sheet Have you destroyed at least two of Reiner Heydrich's coffins?
We've destroyed exactly two!
The gas cloud seeps slowly behind a wall-hanging, and you reveal a secret door there. Opening it, you uncover the last of Reiner Heydrich's coffins; throwing back its lid, you find the slowly re-forming body of the Vampire. Do you have a Crucifix or the Shield of Faith, and also either a Stake or the magical sword, Nightstar? If you have at least one of each pair of items, you know what to do, so turn to 32.
We have all four....
With the symbol of the cross on the Crucifix or the Shield of Faith held over the body, you drive the point of the Stake or Nightstar through the evil heart of Count Reiner Heydrich. Spots of black blood splash on the white silk lining of the coffin and on your hands, but you don't relax your grip. An unholy shriek comes from his mouth and the clawed hands of the expiring Vampire grip the coffin rim, then slowly go limp. The body gradually crumbles to dust. At last the Count has been sent to join his vampiric ancestors in the hells. Gain 2 FAITH points and 2 LUCK points!
Victory!
Slumped over the remains of the Count, you are awakened from your exhausted reverie by the voice of Nastassia calling to you. You unchain her (if you haven't done so already). Her deep blue eyes look into yours, and then she throws her arms round you, calling down blessings on you for saving her from a terrible fate. By a stroke of good fortune she is a healer, and she attends to your wounds expertly; recover 4 lost STAMINA points. You tell her how glad you are that you have freed her from the evil Vampire Count; but Nastassia's eyes grow wide and she cries out, 'Oh no, it wasn't he who was going to kill me. It was his sister!' You have a sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach . . . and then she is here, standing in the room before you, gazing straight into your eyes! lf you have met Katarina Heydrich before, tum to 176. If you haven't met her before, turn to 66.
So wait.....Reiner wasn't trying to kill Nastassia? Please tell me we didn't kill her protector by accident instead......
lf Katarina has tried to charm you before and failed, turn to 20. If she has tried to charm you before and succeeded, turn to 276. If she has not tried to charm you previously, tum to 293.
There's actually some difficulty here.....or there would be if our FAITH wasn't sky-high right now! You see, when we attacked Katarina earlier, we were told to make a FAITH roll. If we had failed, she would have charmed us and made us attack Lothar. But since we passed that roll, we weren't actually told that she tried to charm us, just that she disappeared.

If we had chosen to talk to her instead, she would have tried to persuade us to kill Lothar of our own accord. If we refused, she would then make an obvious effort to charm us.....and we would be told then that she tried an failed. So I'm not sure what players should have done if they had attacked Katarina on sight and then passed the FAITH roll.

But as it is, it doesn't matter, as you will see, this is what happens if we act like she didn't try to charm us before:
Katarina's brilliant, dazzling green eyes gaze into yours; she is trying the same trick that Reiner used!
Roll one die and add 4. If the result is less than or equal to your FAITH, turn to 343. If the result is greater than your FAITE, turn to 381.
We totally can't fail this because our FAITH is now 14!
If she tried to charm us and failed before, we are automatically immune the second time.
You resist the hateful woman's attempt to control you and strike out with your sword, inflicting 2 points of damage on her STAMINA. Tum to 106 to continue the combat.
And now, we move on to, hopefully, what is really the final combat!
Katarina holds a needle-sharp dagger in her left hand - and she is exceptionally skilled in its use! If you have had the chance to strike a t her already, you may subtract 2 from her STAMINA score given below.

KATARINA HEYDRICH SKILL 10 STAMINA 10 8

You can fight her in one of many different ways. Will you male a first attack:

Using your sword?
Using a spell?
By throwing Holy Water at her?
Using a Silver Mirror, hoping to make her recoil?

After making your choice, you will be referred back to this paragraph. If eventually your STAMINA is reduced to 5 or less, tum at once to 237. If you win, tum to 400.
Thanks to Nastassia's healing and our Ring of Regeneration, our STAMINA is back to 19, so we probably won't have any problem finishing her off....but is there anything else we want to try before sticking Nightstar into her?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Blade Belmont von Alucard (w/ black hair!)
SKILL 9/10 (11 in combat, 12 in combat against Vampires!)
STAMINA 19/21
LUCK 8/8
Faith: 12
Possessions: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, Garlic, Magic Sword, Shield of Faith, Silver Mirror, Silver Key, Silvered Stake, Castellan's Keys, Ring of Regeneration (+2 STAMINA after each battle won), Crypt Key, Crucifix, Siegfried's Magic Chainmail (+1 SKILL in combat), Magical Ring of Spell-storing (1 spell left), Nightstar (+1 SKILL in combat, +2 SKILL when fighting Vampires)
Spells: Shatter, Greatstrike, Jandor's Bolt.
Provisions: 2
Afflictions: None
Gold Pieces: 9
Treasure: assorted ornaments & jewellery (worth 7 gp), crystal birds (worth 3 gp), silver pin (worth 2 gp), small trinkets (worth 4 gp)
Clues: "Forward and back" (clue to something the Count has hidden with magic lock)
No. of coffins destroyed: 2
No. of Deaths: 3
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Post by Silent Wayfarer »

See if vampire babes are all that good at sucking.

:p

Edit: silver mirror
Last edited by Silent Wayfarer on Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Laertes »

So after Blade has sated himself with hot man-on-man fighting and now just wants to cuddle, he has to fight the true boss? Hmmmm.

I say Silver Mirror.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I don't like the "hoping to" in the mirror's description, so I'd just suggest roflstomping her with Nightstar and Greatstrike. Killing her leads to the ending (turn to 400) so we know that beating her in combat is the end. But to continue the LP, let's pull out the mirror first, and then Blade can penetrate Katarina with his special moves.
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Post by Mr Shine »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:I don't like the "hoping to" in the mirror's description, so I'd just suggest roflstomping her with Nightstar and Greatstrike. Killing her leads to the ending (turn to 400) so we know that beating her in combat is the end. But to continue the LP, let's pull out the mirror first, and then Blade can penetrate Katarina with his special moves.
Many FF do not have the good ending on reference 400, (or whatever the last reference in the book is), but none of them, as far as I'm aware have had an instuction to turn there near the end at a climactic moment as a LOLwut fuck you to the readers, which I would say is missing a trick. If I wrote a FF book I'd probably have a "if you want to stab yourself with the dagger, turn to 400, if you want to leave turn to 45", with no reason given for why you would want to do so other than it's right near the end of the story and it's a 400 reference.
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Post by SGamerz »

We point the Mirror at her, hoping to make her recoil at the sight of her own ugly reflection...
Katarina laughs, brushing aside the useless object, and slashes at you with her dagger. Lose 2 STAMINA points.
In fact none of the stuff that worked on her brother would have worked on her (including Jandor's Bolt), because:
Conduct the combat normally by turning back to 106. Your opponent is not actually a Vampire, so if you have the magical sword, Nightstar, you can claim a bonus of on]y 1 to your SKILL in this combat.
So apparently she doesn't need to drink the girl's blood, she just wants to emulate her famous ancestors?

Anyway. battle time!

COMBAT LOG:
Katarina 22, Blade 15. Blade is at 15.
Katarina 19, Blade 20. Katarina is at 6.
Since this is likely the end boss fight, I'm casting Greatstrike now to finish her off:
Katarina 16, Blade 21. Katarina takes 6 points of damage and is defeated!
And here we come to the final, and what I consider to be the creepiest picture in the entire book:
Image
The lifeless body of the would-be ruler of Castle Heydrich falls to the floor. There is no hideous shriek, like the soul-tending cry of the Count dispatched to hell, but simply the choking sigh of an evil woman meeting her just end. As she falls, her appearance changes. The illusion of her youth disappears, and a wizened old crone lies at yow feet. Nastassia gasps in horror and looks away, burying her face in your chest. You put an arm round her and lead her slowly up the stairs, away from this evil place. Turning as you leave the Crypt, you see the shade of Siegfried standing behind you, waving a last farewell. At last I can rest in peace, you sense him feeling, and you wave back as he makes a last gesture of blessing upon a warrior as brave as, but more successful than, he was. Castle Heydrich has been cleansed of its timeless, elemental evil by your hand. You sheathe your sword and lead the girl back home, to the hero's welcome that rightly awaits your return.
And this is the end!. Thanks to all of you who participated, and I hope you all had fun! I'll be posting some of the "stuff we missed" tomorrow, and in the meantime, if you have any specific requests or questions on those, you are welcome to post them and I'll try to answer them tomorrow as well!

Final Adventure Sheet:
Name: Blade Belmont von Alucard (w/ black hair!)
SKILL 9/10 (11 in combat, 12 in combat against Vampires!)
STAMINA 15/21
LUCK 8/8
Faith: 14
Possessions: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Lantern, Garlic, Magic Sword, Shield of Faith, Silver Mirror, Silver Key, Silvered Stake, Castellan's Keys, Ring of Regeneration (+2 STAMINA after each battle won), Crypt Key, Crucifix, Siegfried's Magic Chainmail (+1 SKILL in combat), Magical Ring of Spell-storing (0 spells left), Nightstar (+1 SKILL in combat, +2 SKILL when fighting Vampires)
Spells: Shatter, Greatstrike, Jandor's Bolt.
Provisions: 2
Afflictions: None
Gold Pieces: 9
Treasure: assorted ornaments & jewellery (worth 7 gp), crystal birds (worth 3 gp), silver pin (worth 2 gp), small trinkets (worth 4 gp)
Clues: "Forward and back" (clue to something the Count has hidden with magic lock)
No. of coffins destroyed: 2
No. of Deaths: 3
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Post by Laertes »

Thanks very much for running this, SGamerz, I had a great time!
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Post by Silent Wayfarer »

I've heard there's a sequel to this, Revenge of the Vampire. Will Blade be featuring in that one too?
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Fun LP.

Question: What does Forcewall do (I guess generate walls of force, but what use can that be put to in this book?) I also take it that Trueheal and Luckspell restore STAMINA and LUCK; if this is not the case then I'm curious as to what they do as well.
What generally cool stuff (if any) did we miss? (I always ask this question in LPs, but that's because it's always worth asking.)
I'll ask more if I think of any.
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Post by SGamerz »

Silent Wayfarer wrote:I've heard there's a sequel to this, Revenge of the Vampire. Will Blade be featuring in that one too?
If you meant whether it's supposed to be the same player character....no. The PC in that book had never met (or heard of) Reiner Heydrich prior to the adventure. That book is about the very same vampire Reiner Heydrich, though, who found a way to resurrect himself and is now immune to most of the stuff that normal vampires are vulnerable to. The Hero is supposed to find a kill the super-vampire.

What RotV is most known for is the fact that it didn't appear to have gone through a proper editor for some reason. I still like story, but the game features a couple of notable bugs, one of them potentially game-breaking. I may consider running it in the future if I can think of a way to get past that, but it won't be high on my list.
Darth Rabbitt wrote:Fun LP.

Question: What does Forcewall do (I guess generate walls of force, but what use can that be put to in this book?) I also take it that Trueheal and Luckspell restore STAMINA and LUCK; if this is not the case then I'm curious as to what they do as well.
What generally cool stuff (if any) did we miss? (I always ask this question in LPs, but that's because it's always worth asking.)
I'll ask more if I think of any.
Yeah, the spells are generally self-explanatory. Forcewall does, yes, generate a wall of force that either keeps enemies away or prevent them from getting away if they are close to you. The best place to use it would be after we've reduced Reiner's STAMINA to 4, using the spell will prevent him from escaping and healing himself, and the combat will ten jump straight to the final sequence where he tries to bite our throat out of desperation.

We can use it against the Major Thassaloss too, but that doesn't help too much.....because the spell is temporary, and the MT permanently guards the junction between Siegfried's tomb and the Count's final hideout. So unless we plan to go straight to the fight with Reiner and bypass Siegfried, we'll have to fight the creature anyway later, when we came out of Siegfried's tomb. Of course, it isn't completely pointless, since the player does have a better fighting chance if he unlocks Nightstar before coming out to face Major Thassaloss. Unless he already has the Shatter spell, of course, in which case there is absolutely no point wasting another spell here.

The Luckspell restores 3 Luck points and Trueheal acts like a Potion of Stamina (heals half our STAMINA, rounding fractions up).

I'll be posting more of the stuff that we missed on this playthrough in upcoming posts!
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Post by SGamerz »

I think that generally, due to the retcons we went through, we've more or less covered the "good" (rewarding) parts of this book. Most of what I'll be posting will be the "bad" stuff that we thankfully avoided. First, however, I want to reveal the one thing that I think is pretty cool that we didn't see:

Here's what happens if our STAMINA dropped to 5 or below during that last battle with Katarina:
Seeing that you are growing weak, little Nastassia pluckily picks up a dagger from a nearby table and comes to your aid. She will fight on your side with a SKILL of 6.

You are now in a three-way fight- In each Attack Round, roll dice for all three fighters (yourself, Katarina, Nastassia) to see who has the highest
Attack Strength; this will be the combatant to get in the effective, damaging blow in that Attack Round. Katarina will ignore Nastassia; she will continue to strike at you in order to finish you off first!

If you win, turn to 400.
Yep, for once the damsel in distress is not merely someone who sits there helplessly waiting to be saved, she actually joins the fight! Granted, it's not a very strong ally, but all it takes is one lucky roll of the die and she may potentially emerge as the heroine of the adventure saving the PC's life and returning his favour!

Those of you who debated about whether she's past adolescence because she's only seventeen....well, I wouldn't argue that with her! That's one badass seventeen-year-old. :biggrin:

Loot-wise, we picked up almost all the good stuff......except, if you might have noticed, it's possible to pick up more than one vial of Holy Water. There was a second vial inside the Count's bedroom, in the second locked drawer that we decided not to open. As mentioned before, it wasn't really a bad decision that we chose to pass, because our Luck was dangerously low at the time, and failing to avoid the trap leads to death via poison gas!

Generally, we took pretty much the optimal path, although a couple of decisions were questionable. A lot of the earlier fights such as the Ghoul and the Wraith would probably have been better to avoid, since there were no reward (and especially considering the Wraith gave us a rather crippling SKILL penalty). For the first encounter with Katarina, while it wasn't necessarily a bad decision to attack her, it was also possible to come out of that encounter without a fight. Katarina will be more than happy to find out that you came to kill her brother. She's ambitious, and wants to replace her brother as the ruler and Countess of Heydrich Castle. (Mentioning that you are here to rescue Nastassia, however, leads to an immediate fight. Apparently, while she's not a real vampire, she uses magic that requires young girls' blood to keep her young!)

Katarina would have tried to get us to kill Lothar, whom she sees as a threat. If we showed her the Book of Swords, she promises to help us unlock the sword in exchange. Otherwise, she tells us that Lothar has the Stake which can kill the Count...which is why we should kill Lothar and take it from him! If we refused she tries to charm us and force us to be her hitman anyway. If we resist (via FAITH test), we run away without a fight.

If we verbally agreed to kill Lothar, but choose not to do it when we meet him, we will find out that Katarina placed a hex on us that hurts us for breaking our promise to her. Lothar will save us, but not before we take some STAMINA damage. He will guess that we made a promise with the witch, but fortunately, he will accept our word that we didn't really mean it.

If we kill Lothar and go back to Katarina hoping she will help us unlock Nightstar........well, she will try, but it turns out that Reiner was prepared for that, and prepared a countermagic that destroys the book when she works her spell...so yeah, that was definitely the bad option to take.

Remember that Gnome who ferried us across the river? The ranger told us not to trust him, but turns out that he was even more sinister than an untrustworthy ferryman. IF we met him without our ranger friend, the optimal choice was probably to just pay him and cross the river. If we make the mistake of staying at his hut for the night, we will meet this creature:
Image
It's exactly what the pic shows: a vapourous wolf who will attack us....but which we can't fight back against because it's impossible for us to have picked up a Magic Sword at the time. Our weapon will pass straight through. We will be forced to run away while sustaining damage from its bites. The Gnome will be nowhere to be found, and we can't use the boat (since it's operated by his magic) and have to wade across the river....and get attacked by a river snake in the process. All in all, an unpleasant night.

If we decide to kill the Gnome, we can loot his house for some gold and food, but not before we also have to fight this little doggie:
Image
More importantly, we will find a portrait of the Count in his house with the word 'Master' on it, evidence that the Gnome was definitely one of the villain's agents!

And once again, we can't use the boat without its magic operator, and have to be forced to wade through the river.

Coming up next post: those horrible Afflictions that we could have picked up!
Last edited by SGamerz on Sun Jul 27, 2014 5:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SGamerz »

AFFLICTIONS:

As you probably already noticed by now, the one Affliction that the book constantly checks for is the Lycanthropy Affliction. You'd also have noticed that it's the only affliction that has more than one stage ("Major" Lycanthropy Affliction). Basically, every time you reach a spot that exposes you to the full moonlight, the book checks you for that Affliction (also, the Count's portrait would have worsened our condition if we hadn't stormed out of the room on seeing Siegfried's defaced portrait). If we had the basic Lycanthropy and are exposed to moonlight, it gets 'upgraded' to Major Lycanthropy, where our mutation start to take shape (sprouting more hair, etc). If we are checked on Major Lycanthropy and do have it, it's straight to Gamer Over as we get transformed into a Werewolf. There are, I'm pretty sure, 3 spots where that can happen.

Nasty though this Affliction is, it's actually not that likely for us to have acquired it. It could only have happened if we chose to take the Count's coach to his castle, and even then it might not. Here's where FAITH becomes another double-edged weapon. From the moment we get on the coach, there's a FAITH test. If we rolled above our FAITH, we actually reach the castle safely without any incident (apparently our aura isn't strong enough for the Count to consider as any sort of threat). If we rolled less than our FAITH, however, some spectral apparition appears and tries to attack us, whereupon we must rely on our FAITH again (since we can't hurt it without magic weapons). If we repel it with our FAITH, we again reach the castle safely without further incidents. If we fail to repel it, however, we fall out of the coach to escape the creature, and if we survive the fall via a luck roll, we will walk the rest of the way to the castle, and that's where we may potentially encounter these:
Image
One of those two wolves is a Werewolf (probably the bigger one clutching at its side), and if we get bitten by it during combat, we will be inflicted with Lycanthropy. The other, normal Wolf can in fact be avoided/lured away if we throw food at it, but the Werewolf will come straight for us.

As inconvenient as that Affliction is, it's actually not the worst we could have caught! Not least because there are more opportunities to get rid of it. Gunthar Heydrich was pretty much the only one who could have cured us of any other (but only ONE) Affliction, but the Alchemist who is employed by Katarina could also have helped us get rid of Lycanthropy. On the whole there aren't many opportunities to remove Afflictions we've caught.....but on the other hand, most of them are easily avoided, just by not making too many unnecessary bloodthirsty decisions.

Here's what I think must be the most nasty Affliction, and it can be picked up if we chose to attack the forester (after crossing the river) and loot his hut after that:
You find enough hot soup for a meal. This must be eaten here; you cannot carry it with you (restore 4 points of STAMINA). You find a drawer in a table and take out a bag containing 5 Gold Pieces but you also prick your finger on a discoloured needle inside the drawer. You must record Slow-acting Poison in the Afflictions Box on your Adventure Sheet; this will affect you until you can find a cure for it. It works as follows: every time you have to fight, at the beginning of the combat you must subtract 1 point from your current STAMINA, and also 1 point from your lnitial STAMINA! Thus you will gradually become severely weakened. Only if you can find a treatment to cure you of this Affliction will you be able to restore your lnitial STAMINA to the level you started with.
I think the description says it all.

Another close candidate for most horrible Affliction can be found here:
Image
That's mad Wilhelm Heydrich's pet Raven. Again, this will only be encountered if we perform an unnecessary kill and cut down poor Wilhelm, and then proceed to search his room. The Raven will try to avenge its master, and as soon as it wins an attack round, it'll peck out one of our eyes (yes, you read that right) and inflict a horrible -2 SKILL penalty for the rest of the adventure unless we can find a cure (read: Gunthar)!

Those, coupled with the Curse of the Healer that we'd actually picked up at one point, should tell you that in general, the author frowns on unnecessary violence....which is rather rare for the Fighting Fantasy series!

On the whole, though, most of the Afflictions are easy to miss (but horribly inconvenient if picked up). There are a few occasions where, as you've seen, having the Curse of the Healer really made things extra difficult in combats. Overall, I think the only Affliction that we could have caught on the "optimal" path is Curse of the Bat, and that doesn't bring any other negative consequences as long as we avoid Doktor Faustus.

That's mostly it for Afflictions. Next up will probably be my last post in this topic summing up the rest of my thoughts on this gamebook, unless there are more questions or requests.
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Post by SGamerz »

To me, one of the things about this book that stands out in the series is that it manages to keep to the traditional "scavenger hunt" format (where the PC wanders around the "dungeon" looking for items to pass later obstacles) without being too punishing. One gets the sense that the author is really trying to help the player by providing him with alternatives when he misses something, despite the fact that like most gamebooks there a several conditions that the layer needs to fulfill before he can win the Boss fight.

For a start, as you can see, instead of giving us just two essential quest items to find (Stake and Crucifix), we're given two pairs of possible quest items to fulfill that purpose. Instead having to sit on the chest and cry because we took one wrong turn and missed a key for a Warlock's chest, or having to go through the entire book all over again because we can't find one half of a magic hammer in a big forest, the player is forgiven for making the occasional wrong turn.

Missed the Shield of Faith? That's ok, the Count's healer brother gives you a substitute cross for the job! Wait, you killed that healer by accident? That's fine too, meet the Count's other brother who's now a ghost and he'll give you another one! (Yes, Siegfried will give us a Crucifix if we came to his tomb without one).

It's similar with the Nightstar/Stake situation. Missed the Book of Swords? That's too bad, but a Stake + a normal Magic Sword can do the job if you are lucky with the dice! Wait, you missed the Magic Sword that's found early in the Adventure as well? Ok, we'll give you another one a few steps before the Count's final hiding place!

The Stake, I believe, is impossible to miss. Even if you killed Lothar, you'll still loot his place and find it. And you can't miss Lothar, since you need his Castellan's Key to go any further in the adventure.

Missed the room containing the Magic Armour? Again, no worries, we'll tell you again when you walk past it on the way back down!

There are 3 coffins you can find and destroy, before you meet the Count, but you only need to find 2 of them to win. We missed one which was guarded by some Vampiric Mists which isn't a particularly strong guardian. We do need a Magic Sword to defeat it, but a player who missed the Magic Sword earlier can still go on to win by taking the path we took and finding the coffin in the hidden room. And the one in the Count's bedroom is, again, impossible to miss, since we have to go there to find the Crypt Key anyway.

Missing those vital item at the end (not having a Crucifix to destroy the Count in his coffin, or not finding enough coffins and allowing the Count to escape) prevents us from reaching the most successful ending, but does allow us to rescue the girl and returning to the village (provided we did beat the Count in combat).

We've had a pretty rough time trying to survive this playthrough, but in fact most of the unnecessary fights can be avoided with a decent FAITH score. We just chose to act more aggressively. Technically, the only unavoidable fights are against the Spectre in the Count's room, the 2 Zombies guarding the secret stairway, and of course the two End Bosses. While these fights are tough on their own, we could actually still have had a chance if we had preserved our supplies early in the adventure and had some luck with the dice. For almost every other encounter besides the Spectre and the Zombies, the players are an alternative as to how to deal with them, instead of just being told, "here's another random wandering monster, stab it before it gets you". The Big Boss is suitably badass with Skill 13, but there are multiple ways to cut him down to size and make it a possible fight and there's a sense of accomplishment when one legitimately takes down an enemy like that without cheating. That's what I generally like about this author's end bosses in general. They feel like legitimate badass, but it's still possible to beat them through a combination of conditions that make the fight possible, and it feels like an accomplishment to finally take them down.

So yeah, in general I dig the gamebook's design in terms of difficulty and fairness. How hard the playthrough will be is, in many ways, within the player's control, depending on how aggressively he wants to act. On my very first playthrough I made it to the Endgame (although I failed to beat the Count) without locating the first Magic Sword simply by walking past encounters after successful FAITH tests. And while lacking the Magic Sword is a disadvantage, it is surprisingly not lethal for most of the encounters (although you do take damage as you are forced to flee), at least until you meet the Count, by which time you would have had not 1 but 3 chances to find a Magic Sword, and if you missed all of them you can only blame your own luck!

Although in general FF encounters are little more than excuses to give the player someone to fight, something to loot, or some exposition device, I think there's just enough personality to the characters in the book for them to be memorable in their own rights. All the living creatures we meet have a good reason to be there, and have their own plausible motives to help or hinder you. The Sage doesn't care about good or evil, he just wants more money for his research, so he serves as a source of information that you have to pay for. Katarina is evil but not just another blind follower of the evil lord, she has her own ambitions to get rid of the Count (and the fact that Reiner is likewise wary of her and therefore took precautions to prevent her from unlocking Nightstar is a nice touch, I find). Wilhelm is a nutcase with unpredictable tendencies, but mostly harmless. Gunthar is nice but too much of a wuss to actually do anything about his evil siblings himself, so he's allowed to live there (the fact that he chooses to adapt his ancestors' traditional hairstyle meekly (which Siegfried didn't) actually serves to emphasize his weakness and lack of personal power. Sure, he's a healer, not a warrior, but so is Nastassia, and she has the guts to fight!)

Sure, there still flaws with the design. All those descriptions and blind choices of being in a corridor/junction with 3 random doors to choose from become rather repetitive and monotonous after a while, but they are really no worse than the blind left/right options in classic FFs like Deathtrap Dungeon. Also, one thing that's often encountered in these dungeon-type gamebooks is that often, when given an option of which way to go, going one way advances the plot and magically doesn't allow you to explore the other option. That railroad effect is definitely apparent here, but I feel Keith Martin softens this somewhat most of the time by briefly bringing up a reason why the PC chooses not to go another way (hearing something snarl in the courtyard warned him of danger, hearing something crash in the kitchen made him thing someone had been alerted and deciding not to go there, etc). Some of the reasons are pretty weak, but at least he bothers to mention them at all, unlike some other authors.

Other than the blind direction choices, I think the "good" and "bad" options in general make sense (drinking red wine in a vampire's castle? What are you thinking?!), although some may be too obvious. Although one thing I think they should have done more with is the idea that the Count knows you are here and actually sent a coach for you. Once you reach the castle very little of that is mentioned. In fact there is only one encounter (that we missed) where there was a reminder that the Count is aware of your presence (he sends a Giant Rat to attack you, and after you kill it, shows up briefly to taunt you and let you know that he doesn't consider you a threat). Also I would have loved to get the chance to finally kill off that Headless Horseman near the end (alas, he doesn't appear again after the first encounter, and attacking him then will fail as our non-magical weapon pass through him and cost us a FAITH point). We do, however, have a chance to find and kill his Steed in the courtyard:
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And finally, before I end this wrap-up, here's a pic of something we actually did meet but didn't come across the picture at the time (because we chose to cast a spell instead of fighting it).

MAJOR THASSALOSS:
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Once again, thank you all for playing!
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