[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 40 - Dead of Night!

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

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Omegonthesane
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Post by Omegonthesane »

Yeah, changing vote to mirror because I'm pretty sure we have less than nothing to go on here.
Kaelik wrote:Because powerful men get away with terrible shit, and even the public domain ones get ignored, and then, when the floodgates open, it turns out there was a goddam flood behind it.

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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Mirror sounds both the least dangerous and the most likely to help us.
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Post by Sirocco »

^ And thus will be the only choice that results to instadeath. :p
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Post by SGamerz »

Sirocco wrote:First off, how can a skeleton grin?
As has already been pointed out, I think grinning is the only expression a skeleton can have. The mystery is how the texts phrases it, which kind of implies that the skeleton wasn't grinning before and decided then to grin at Sir Mansley.

Here's the pic I wasn't able to post earlier:
Image
I was under the impression that our brother was a child when he died, but then I guess the book never truly stated his age. Still he looks older than I expected.

Anyway, before we go through the mirror, I'm going to have Sir Mansley chow down a meal and bring his STAMINA up to 15. Then we go through the mirror, and see this:
Image
We found the Boss! Oh, and Mom and Dad, too.
You pass through the mirror. Before you is a scene which sets your heart pounding. Your parents stand, bound together, in a magical circle with burning candles at their feet . Behind them is an oak table with three Netherworld Sorcerers sitting at it. They seem to be concentrating on three items before them: a crystal ball, a leather-bound book and a pyramid of bones; and an ornate dagger is thrust into the table-top. Your parents see you, but their voices do not sound through the magical circle.

Worse still, you can make out the Demonic form of Myurr, resting on a massive throne. Drinking from a blood-filled chalice, Myurr laughs harshly and his snake-like tongue slithers between his razor-sharp teeth:'Greetingsss, Demon-Ssstalker. Welcome to the culmination of all my plansss. You have come to ressscue your parentsss, and ssso have entered my tower of your own free will. I could not make you do ssso by force, yet your presssence isss esssential, ssso I have baited you here. Any sssuccessses you have had on your journey have been due to my machinationsss. Using the power of the Sssorcerersss, the life energiesss of your parentsss and the power of your sssoul, I shall open a permanent gateway between the Demonic and Earthly Planesss. My armiesss have cleared the way for thisss to occur. I shall dominate you and all your worthlesss kind.'

You thought that to open such a gate was impossible. Myurr must be stopped. To defeat him, you must either slay his earthly form or discover where he has hidden the magical gem that allows him to remain on this plane. If you can find the gem and destroy it, it will explode and banish Myurr, but the explosion may also kill you.

Now you must fight. In the course of each Attack Round you may do one - and only one - of three things: either fight as normal, or throw one vial of Holy Water at Myurr, or dodge him and attempt to destroy one of the objects in the room in the hope that it conceals Myurr's gem. See below for further explanation. Alternatively, you may use the DARK VEIL Talent, if you have it, to attack Myurr under a cloak of invisibility.

When fighting Myurr, only a magical weapon will cause him to lose any STAMINA points. If you win an Attack Round with a normal weapon, you neither give nor receive any damage. Moreover, Myurrr's four arms allow him to attack twice per round. This is like facing two opponents with the same SKILL score, and only you! first attack can cause any damage.

MYURR SKILL 14 STAMINA 25

If you defeat Myurr, turn to 400.

If you throw Holy Water at Myurr, you must roll two dice; if the total rolled is equal to or less than your SKILL score, you score a direct hit. Roll one die and deduct that number of points from Myurr's STAMINA. If you miss, the vial is wasted. Either way, Myurr is held at bay for a round and cannot make an attack on you.

Finally, if you choose to destroy an item, you risk being hit by Myurr. Will you attempt to destroy:

The candles?
The chalice?
The crystal ball?
The dagger?
The book?
The pyramid of bones?
Whew! That's a lot of text! I have the suspicion that the authors wasted too many sections on that stupid maze and ran out them at the end, so had to rush the end scene in one big chunk of text.

We don't have DARK VEIL or any Holy Water left, so it's either fight him normally or look for the gem. I think most of you have a good idea where we can find that gem, so that shouldn't be hard. On the other hand, we can fight the End Boss with a whooping SKILL of 15, which we're unlikely to get the opportunity to do so again. Of course, his double-hit ability and high STAMINA means it will still be a challenge.

So which do we want to do?

Adventure Sheet:
Name: Sir Mansley Girthrod
SKILL 11/11 (15/15 when fighting Demons!)
STAMINA 15/19
LUCK 12/13
Evil: 2
Possessions: Nightbane (sword), robes & skull cap, Silver Cross, Potion of Destiny (+4 LUCK), Lantern, Sword of Demon-Slaying (+4 SKILL when fighting Demons)
Talents: Meditation, Sense Demon, Banish Undead, Speak Demon
Provisions: 6
Gold Pieces: 4
No. of Deaths: 5
Misc Notes: 1) Look for the 'Pyramid of Bone', 2) 'The tower and the Eye are your greatest threats. For you to be safe, they must be destroyed. Say "Shagrat" and your way into the tower is assured. But the true path to your destiny lies in the balance, the left balance. Seek the pool', 3)we are disguised as an Orc.
Last edited by SGamerz on Thu Sep 11, 2014 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Omegonthesane
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Post by Omegonthesane »

Attempt to commit cathartic murderisation. Torch our LUCK on crit hits until we hit 8, then chug the luck potion.

If despite it all we hit 5 Stamina, follow the obvious hint and attack the pyramid of bones.
Kaelik wrote:Because powerful men get away with terrible shit, and even the public domain ones get ignored, and then, when the floodgates open, it turns out there was a goddam flood behind it.

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Post by Starmaker »

Nope, we aren't winning this one. Mansley takes 1.8 dpr on average and folds in 8 rounds, Myurr takes 2.2 dpr if we keep being lucky and folds in 11 rounds. Pyramid of bones.
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Post by Omegonthesane »

Starmaker wrote:Nope, we aren't winning this one. Mansley takes 1.8 dpr on average and folds in 8 rounds, Myurr takes 2.2 dpr if we keep being lucky and folds in 11 rounds. Pyramid of bones.
This is why I added the caveat about "if we aren't ricockulously lucky, pyramid of bones"... though admittedly I didn't run the numbers first.
Kaelik wrote:Because powerful men get away with terrible shit, and even the public domain ones get ignored, and then, when the floodgates open, it turns out there was a goddam flood behind it.

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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Let's go for the pyramid of bones.
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Post by SGamerz »

We forgo the fight and go straight for the pyramid:
You rush towards the bone pyramid, only to find Myurr standing between you and it. His slitted eyes stare deeply into yours, summoning up all the evil acts you have committed in your life. You feel pulled towards Myurr as attempts to corrupt and consume you with hate. To determine whether or not you fall under his power, roll two dice and compare the total rolled with your EVIL score. If the result is equal to or less than your EVIL score, turn to 89. If it is higher than your EVIL score, turn to 163.
Evil acts? What evil acts? The only Evil points we picked up so far are from conducting rituals to destroy evil!

We literally have to roll a double-2 to fail this roll....

Dice roll: 6+5 = 11 (not even close)
Although you may be tainted by Evil, your inherent Goodness overcomes Myurr's power. You grab the bone pyramid and smash it against the far wall. It explodes outwards, sending scorching blasts of magical power across the chamber. If you have the Demon-Slaying Sword or Branner's Ring, turn to 400. If you do not have either item, roll two dice and deduct the total rolled from your STAMINA. If you are still alive, turn to 400. If you are dead, turn to 384.
Even though we never get to use the big shiny sword, at least still serve to give us automatic protection from the gem's explosion.
Myurr screams with rage as he is ripped from this world. 'It'sss not over, Demon-Ssstalker, I shall return and take my revenge.' The Demon Prince is gone, his hold this world broken; he has been forced back to the Demon Plane. But you know that this is only a temporary victory: the Demon Prince has the power to return, and one day he will. All you can do is remain vigilant and prepare. However, it is not a hollow victory, for your parents are free and you have stopped Myurr from opening his gate to the Demon Plane. You notice that the Netherworld Sorcerers have also disappeared. All that remains are their three robes.

Your parents rush over to you. Overjoyed to see you once more, they join you in giving thanks to the gods. You have saved the world of Titan and freed your parents. The road has been hard, but you have done well. You have lived up to your name, Demon-Stalker.
And it's over! Congratulations and thank you to everyone for playing!

As usual, will be posting some of the stuff we didn't encounter tomorrow, and meanwhile any questions about the rest of this book are welcome.

Final Adventure Sheet:
Name: Sir Mansley Girthrod
SKILL 11/11 (15/15 when fighting Demons!)
STAMINA 15/19
LUCK 12/13
Evil: 2
Possessions: Nightbane (sword), robes & skull cap, Silver Cross, Potion of Destiny (+4 LUCK), Lantern, Sword of Demon-Slaying (+4 SKILL when fighting Demons)
Talents: Meditation, Sense Demon, Banish Undead, Speak Demon
Provisions: 6
Gold Pieces: 4
No. of Deaths: 5
Misc Notes: 1) Look for the 'Pyramid of Bone', 2) 'The tower and the Eye are your greatest threats. For you to be safe, they must be destroyed. Say "Shagrat" and your way into the tower is assured. But the true path to your destiny lies in the balance, the left balance. Seek the pool', 3)we are disguised as an Orc.
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Sirocco
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Post by Sirocco »

Woo!

OK, the question that burns me: was the window and the candles an autodeath?
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Post by SGamerz »

Sirocco wrote:Woo!

OK, the question that burns me: was the window and the candles an autodeath?
Window, yes, the classic plunge to death from a great height.

Snuffing out the candles just means that we have to blindly try to find our way out of the room in the dark.....and basically have a 50/50 chance of going out by the window or the mirror.
Last edited by SGamerz on Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
Omegonthesane
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Post by Omegonthesane »

What bad stuff happens if we smash the wrong thing in the Myurr battle?

Does the ending differ meaningfully if we somehow punch Myurr to death instead of smashing his pet rock?

Are there any times when Sense Demon, Holy Circle, or Healing screws us over? (Or Dark Veil, beyond the obvious May Contain Evil.)
Kaelik wrote:Because powerful men get away with terrible shit, and even the public domain ones get ignored, and then, when the floodgates open, it turns out there was a goddam flood behind it.

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath, Justin Bieber, shitmuffin
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Post by SGamerz »

Omegonthesane wrote:What bad stuff happens if we smash the wrong thing in the Myurr battle?
We take some damage (and on one occasion a 1 point SKILL penalty for every wrong item we go for, varying between 2-5 points . If it doesn't kill us, we get to go back to the same section to try again (or change tactics).
Does the ending differ meaningfully if we somehow punch Myurr to death instead of smashing his pet rock?
Nope. As you can see above in the End-scene section, we go to section 400 no matter how we win.
Are there any times when Sense Demon, Holy Circle, or Healing screws us over? (Or Dark Veil, beyond the obvious May Contain Evil.)
For Sense Demon, there was a possible encounter we missed due to accepting the Sorcerer's free teleportation. There would have been a possible combat with a "Great Demon", a SKILL 11 STAMINA 18 creature which would have been the toughest opponent in the book not named Myurr. That was the one other place where we could have put our Demon-Slayer sword to use. We're alos given the option to use either Sense Demon or Holy Circle. Hoy Circle will work and keep him at bay, but Sense Demon will get us auto-killed because the Demon was already too close to us and mauls us the exact moment we find out what it is.

Using Dark Veil, other than the likelihood of getting us warped by the Deathstone due to having too high an Evil score (using it ALWAYS increases Evil), will also lead to auto-fail if we trying to use in the End Scene against Myurr, basically making us completely vulnerable to his mind-control.

Healing doesn't screw us over, as far as I can recall, but I also believe it's the least-checked ability in the entire book. Most of the time it doesn't do much even when we get to use it, giving a an extra minor bit of exposition info that we don't really need. There's only one place, I think, where healing can save our life, and that's if we chose to take the road to Astonbury, which turns out to be plague-ridden. Unless the player is very stubborn, though he'll probably have turned back long before he reaches there, since there are multiple warnings about the plague way before that (including a mob at a barricade quarantining the area that literally tries to force you to turn back for your own safety....forcing your way past them doesn't gain you anything other than a chance of getting yourself killed without Healing and definitely getting Godsfire killed by the plague).

Holy Circle is IMO the most useful Talent in the book, one that is frequently useful and, again, as I can recall, never actually screws us over. If I were to play this book and take the exact same path we did on this playthrough, I'd have replaced Sense Demon with Holy Circle, since the one time Sense Demon would really have been useful to us during this game was when it warned us to stay away from the wooden house full of Moon Demons....and we chose not to take that warning anyway! :biggrin:

Speaking of Talents that screw us over, you've already encountered that with Speak Demon, and I've also brought up earlier (in Spoiler text) that MEDITATE can get us killed if we tried to use I in the house full of raging Moon Demons. BANISH UNDEAD can also give us a really bad option (but not a lethal one) if we chose to hide from Magrand's flying assassin and continue on our way without going to Colton-on-the-Marsh. We would have encountered Sharleena's (our seer friend that we missed the chance to visit) ghost:
Image
Yes, Sharleena's dead, whether we knew about it before hand or not. We would NOT be told the ghost's identity, and be asked whether we wish to Banish it with our Talent. If we choose not to do it (or can't), she will give us some hint about the Pool of Dunningham.

Speaking of Sharleena, she's doomed to die, but we'll actually witness her death scene if we get to visit her near the beginning:
Image
That's her lying at the Spirit Demon's feet. We'd have been somewhat responsible for it, too, since she basically summoned the Demon to help us find out where our parents are. There's no way to avoid getting her killed, although we could have avenged her death if we were there. Here's where SPEAK DEMON would be useful, as Sharleena try to use her magic to coerce the Demon into giving her the information (before it breaks free and kills her), but the Demon tries to get around that by speaking in his own language. Having the SPEAK DEMON will mean that we pick up a clue as to the direction of Myurr's lair (in the Cragrock Peaks).

More to come in another post.....
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Post by SGamerz »

Still remember our horse? Poor Godsfire actually fares worse than Battle-Cat for the most part. Running away from us in Weddonbridge was actually one of the better things that could have happened to it (although whether it managed to survive on its own in a village full of Moon Demons is up to conjecture). There's only one path, I think, where we actually choose to send Godsfire back to the temple on its own (confident that it knows the way and will likely reach it safely), because we reach some territory that a horse can't navigate and we have to press on foot. I can't remember where exactly this is, since there are several possible paths to the end. I think it's where we'd encounter some kind of magical barrier on the road that forces us to change our route. We can accept that, and send Godsfire back while we try another route that's inaccessible for horses, or we can choose to be stubborn and try to charge/jump (can't remember which) the invisible magic barrier. It's actually possible to get past it, but Godfire dies from the collision, basically throwing us over the barricade in the process while sacrificing itself. So either way, we're on foot for the rest of the adventure.

Other ways we can get parted from our horse are all pretty much horrible, ranging from it getting eaten by zombies while we're asleep (yes for real) to, as already mentioned previously, getting killed by a plague in Astonbury if we're too stubborn to listen to the barricade guards.

Astonbury is a bad place to be, but beginning our journey by starting out on the road to this place actually isn't all bad, since we get the chance to run into this guy:
Image
Remember the name 'Samatz'? That's him. This guy is probably another Servant of the Trickster who hasn't been deceived by Myurr (or he may be some personification of the Trickster himself, but I doubt it). He won't tell you who he is, but he'll offer us food and lodgings for the night, give us a dream image of him holding a set of balance, and tell us to remember his name, then disappear when we awake in the morning. Mentioning his name to the Netherworld Sorcerer is the only other way we could have gotten the Demon-Slayer Sword if we didn't have MEDITATION.

After we've met this guy, we have the opportunity to board the exact same river boat that'll bring us to Axmoor (and the boat people will give us our first warning about Astonbury being plague-ridden). Refusing to believe them or accept their offer will bring only a bit further along the road before we run into:
Image
These guys will literally shoot us down if we try to force our way past their barricade into the plagued village, since anyone who catches the plague will be considered a danger to everyone else. We can sneak past them, but like I said it doesn't gain us anything other than a chance of insta-death if we didn't have HEAL to protect us, and even that can't protect Godsfire. We'd continue to Stanford if we survive.

Oh, and about the Netherworld Sorcerer.....if we don't have Samatz or our own god (via MEDITAION speed dial) backing us up, our best bet would have been to try to convince him that we're Evil. That's when having a high EVIL score actually helps us for one.

Actually, the easiest way to convince him of our Evilness is if we chose to attack the strange woman in Dunningham (although that would mean we miss all her hints), because, you know, only Evil people randomly attack people for no reason. Good adventurers don't ever do that, right? Failing that, we would have to roll below our EVIL score to convince him, at which point he gives us the same free teleportation to Myurr's lair. We don't that the cool Sword this way, though.

Failure to convince him (or choosing not to) will prompt him to drop us in another stupid maze:
Image
We're supposed to go through a series of doors of different geometrical shapes in the exact right order in order to find the keys out of the maze. It's actually not too hard to figure out the sequence after a few trial and errors (going from the shape with the least sides to the most), but we take damage each time we don't travel in the right sequence, and it's probably a bigger waste of sections than the maze with the coloured rooms.

Taking the free teleportation pretty much only means that we get to skip ONE encounter......the fight with the Great Demon that I was talking about in my previous post.

Oh, and about the room in with the clattering sound and a Demonic Pandemonium? That was probably the one encounter that I was sorry to miss in this playthrough. Staying and listening to the music will bring us (or rather our mind/spirit) back in time to our home village....just after our brother's death. We'll be present at the funeral....both of us.
Image
We get the option to a) Talk to our parents, b) talk to Branner, the priest, or c) talk to our younger self. Those of you who read the Background text closely and still remember it may know what's the exact right move. Talking to our younger self leads to an error in the continuum of time and leads to insta-fail (dooming us to repeat the scene over the over again. Talking to out parents with scare the bajeezes out of them and cause Branner to try and Banish us (yes he has the exact same Talent), throwing us back into our body with some damage taken. The right move, of course, was to talk to Branner, as the Background story indicated (you saw Branner talking to a "ghost" during your brother's funeral, after which he decided to help you become a Demon-Hunter). I always thought that was a very nice tie-in to the story and nice resolution to the minor mystery.

Branner will also give us his ring, which will also help protect us from the demonic gem's explosion in the end scene if we didn't already have the Demon-Slyer Sword which can serve that purpose just as well. All in all, like I said, the encounter wasn't essential at all, but I was still sorry to miss it.

And speaking of that end scene explosion, some of you will have noticed that we're actually given a specific section to turn to if we are dead from the explosion. This is what it would have led to:
You fall to the floor, mortally wounded. Before you die, you hear Myurr scream and witness him being sucked from this plane. At the same time the robes of the Netherworld Sorcerers drop to the floor; they too are gone. You may have given your life, but your sacrifice was not in vain; your actions have saved the world. Your parents rush to your side and make your last moments as comfortable as possible. You tell them not to blame themselves for what has happened, and then your spirit slips away.
Yep, we get a rare classic tragic hero ending if we destroy the gem but die in the process.

One last post to come before I wrap this up!
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Post by SGamerz »

There are probably quite a number of other stuff in this book that I haven't brought up and can't quite remember, because there are a lot of multiple possible paths to the end. Overall, most of the side-quests/encounters aren't hard to get past, but on the other hand most of them seem pretty inconsequential to the overall game. The side-plots with killing Magrand and stopping his possible resurrection sounded important, but there's no real penalty for not doing them, and not much reward for accomplishing them (it's possible to not encounter them at all if we took different paths). The Demon-Slayer Sword is probably the only really significant loot in this book, and the most useful stuff are actually the ones we start with (the Cross and the Holy Water). Even the sword isn't really that important, since unless we are REALLY low on STAMINA we could probably still have won by finding the gem through some trial and error.

Overall, I think the minor quests are flavourful enough to get some enjoyment out of, but it would help if they were to have more of an overall impact. Surely, allowing the "indestructible Abomination" of Magrand to get away should have some consequences. Instead, if we chose not to heed the bloody "Death on the Marsh" message from our god, nothing bad really happens to us. I guess that's a side effect of the author not wanting to make the book too linear and too railroading, which is a good thing in itself.

With regards to the EVIL score, other than the use of DARK VEIL, most of the ways that we can pick up EVIL points are quite obvious and easy to avoid. Like I said before most of the side-plots really have no effect on the end scene whatsoever, but here's where the EVIL score can make a slight difference whether you should bother doing any of them. Refusing to help the farmer defend his home against the Skeletal Horde in Stanford, for example, will gain us EVIL points. Also, if we've visited the inn back at home, the villagers (who blame us for the blight) will try to chase us out of the village, and if we resist and end up killing some of them we gain EVIL as well.

There's minor side-plot that's actually sort of recurring...or at least there's a reference to it in a later encounter. If we'd chosen to go on the Road to Colton instead of Weddonbridge, we'd arrive at an inn where, if we talk to the right person, we'll learn that there have been people disappearing after reaching the inn. If possible for us to get drugged and abducted ourselves, or we can catch the mysterious abductors in the act. Either way, we learn that the innkeeper and an orc wagon-driver have been working together abduct people in their sleep on behalf of Magrand to use them for his "experiment". We can catch and punish the innkeeper, but the orc always gets away. We can then go on to the Marsh and confront Magrand.

There is no real confirmation that the orc driver who gave us a lash of his whip when we encountered him on our way to Dunningham is the same orc from the inn, but it was apparently doing something similar, abducting prisoners. This is when we can have the opportunity to finally put him down and free the prisoners (we missed that chance when we chose to stand in the middle of the road and let him see us coming). Too bad there's no reference to the possible earlier encounter, so it may be a different orc entirely. Still, if we'd encountered the one at the inn, it would probably feel good to be able to catch the one Dunnigham later.

That's all I can think of now without going back to the book for another thorough read. :biggrin: Once again, thanks for everyone who played! Now I'll be going back to my old gamebooks collection pile to look for my next non-FF LP, which I hope you'll still be interested to play! :)
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