[Let's Play] Virtual Reality Gamebooks: Twist of Fate

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Jun 04, 2019 11:59 pm

SlyJohnny wrote:Is attacking him ourselves the same reference as fighting him before?

It's a different one.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:03 am

Okay, so let's hope our djinni did enough damage to turn the tide, so we can sword him to death and lose less than 4 life points. Attack.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:23 am

I don't see why we have to recall our guy, but being passive rarely works out. Get him personally.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:53 am

Letting the fight go on will probably lead to us losing our djinni and effectively losing one of our 4 skills. Recall and fight.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 3:47 am

Azenomei’s golden eyes flash with eagerness for the kill. Pulling his sword from his belt, he leaps forward to match you blow for blow. Both of you suffer dreadful wounds, and red human blood soon mingles underfoot with the black ichor of jinni’s veins. You feel yourself weakening, but you are determined to make this a fight to the bitter end.
If you have SWORDPLAY and a sword, lose 2 Life Points. If not but you have WRESTLING, lose 4 Life Points. If you have neither skill, lose 6 Life Points.

Azenomei lies motionless at your feet. Slowly he begins to dissolve into a thick black miasma. A stench like burning sulphur fills the room. When his body has completely vanished, the only thing left is his sword, which you can take if you wish. (D'Arcy does not have the codeword Harem.)

Lose the codeword Harem if you have it.
You start back across the baking desert sands. Billows of heat rise off the ground, making the horizon tremble. Rocks and dust lie in all directions as far as the eye can see.
If you have a full water bottle, mark it as empty and lose 1 Life Point. If you did not have a full bottle, lose 2 Life Points. (Lose 1 less Life Point if you have WILDERNESS LORE.)

And with that a badly wounded D'Arcy dies in the desert. Assuming we want to try again, any of these assumptions (or some combination thereof) would have saved us in the fight with Az:
Assume we bought a second water bottle instead of one of the items we haven't used (gloves, whistle, veil or candle?
Assume we picked WILDERNESS LORE and/or AGILITY instead of one of the skills we haven't used (CUNNING and/or LUCK)?

For jumping back further:
Let the jinni duel go on?
Try opening the door instead of going back to Az?
Don't follow Az to his citadel?
Leave Az to rot in the jail?
Don't drop the flower in the clouds?
Wait and watch on the ship instead of alerting the captain?
Sail to the Indies or Egypt instead of the Scarlet Isle?
Try traveling to Egypt on foot?
Go straight to the Caliph's Palace at the beginning?

That's just about every branch I can think of (and with any of these we could still buy different stuff or pick different skills or whatever).

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 7:53 am

Don't drop the flower

Whiysper · Post by **Whiysper** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:54 pm

I'll second the 'pretending we totally have FOLKLORE' solution

. (Or hell, swap it in and pick up from the creepy cloud-flower-stealing-child-monster).

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:20 pm

Swap in FOLKLORE for LUCK since that shit shoudl have fucking saved us by now and hasn't.

Then rewind to handing over the flower.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 7:10 pm

I'm with Omegon. It's possible that LUCK is a secret trap option, since in the Arabian Nights there is no luck, only the ineffable will of the almighty.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 7:41 pm

An old story you heard from your mother springs to mind. It concerned a sailor who was cast up to the heavens on a waterspout. His comrades all fell back to their doom, but he was clutching a magic flower which enabled him to walk on the clouds. Finding a city of scintillant gold, he dwelt among the people there and even married one of them. Many years later, he was able to leave when the cloud became lodged on top of a high mountain. He brought his wife down the mountainside with him, but she could not survive in the over-rich air and soon died.
Bearing this tale in mind, you decide it might be safer not to let go of the flower. Note on your list of possessions that you have a jasmine flower.

She suddenly stops her sobbing and gives you a scowl of such blood-freezing hatred that you hope never to see the like again. As you step back in dismay, she leaps up and runs off between the clumps of cloud. You follow for a short distance, but you cannot find any trace of her. Seeing the spires and domes of the city not far off, you make your way towards it.

The city is a sight to take the breath away. Columns of ivory and alabaster support walls of pure shimmering gold. The blocks of the pavement are gold and silver inlaid with sparkling jewels. The minarets are encrusted with lapis lazuli of so intense a blue that they seem as though the sky itself has taken on solid form.
Awestruck, you pass through a burnished arch that gleams like flame in the sunlight and enter a wide hall where a strange battle is taking place. A gryphon – a lion-like being with an eagle’s wings and beak – is struggling with a giant scorpion. The fury of their battle is like nothing you have ever witnessed. Their deafening cries reverberate off the walls: the shriek and caw of the noble gryphon, the awful rattling hiss of its venomous foe. Each blow makes the metallic floor ring like an anvil. The whole chamber is awash with gore.
During a respite in the fighting, the gryphon falls back, sinking to the floor beside you. The scorpion crouches against the far wall. It is injured too, but you see that it is recovering its strength faster. As the scorpion advances flailing its poison-coated sting, the gryphon turns to you and says weakly, ‘Grant me a drop of your blood. It is the only thing that will sustain me in this battle.’

Will you consent to give some of your blood or not?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: D'Arcy Windblade
Gender: Female
Skills: CUNNING, FOLKLORE, MAGIC and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 10
Possessions:
1) Ring
2) Sword
3) Water Bottle
4) Whistle
5) Gloves
6) Jasmine Flower
7)
8)
Money: 5 dinars

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:39 pm

Half a vote not to, on the basis the twist is that the "venomous" scorpion is going to be the good guy, whilst the "noble" gryphon is an asshole.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:44 pm

Imma go with feeding the vampire gryphon actually

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 10:11 pm

I guess we have lifepoints to spare.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 11:23 pm

The gryphon’s beak slices into your breast, drawing a rivulet of blood. Lose 1 Life Point.
If you survive, you fall back gasping as you see the invigorated gryphon launch itself afresh into the fray. Soon it has slain the ghastly scorpion. But before you can rise or speak a word, another monster of even greater size comes bounding into the hall. This is a great black goat with foaming spittle on its jaws.
The gryphon retreats to stand beside you. ‘I must feast on a human eye,’ it pants. ‘That is the only sustenance that will sustain me.’
Let it peck out your eye or not?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: D'Arcy Windblade
Gender: Female
Skills: CUNNING, FOLKLORE, MAGIC and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 9
Possessions:
1) Ring
2) Sword
3) Water Bottle
4) Whistle
5) Gloves
6) Jasmine Flower
7)
8)
Money: 5 dinars

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 1:26 am

I'm thinking not.

Mr Shine · Post by **Mr Shine** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 1:50 am

In for a penny, in for an eyeful.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 4:14 am

We're being trolled. Windblade out.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 11:36 am

I think we'll end up having everything restored back to us and more after multiple escalating sacrifices. That's the way traditional fairy tales work, and this story is something close.

Give our eye.

SlyJohnny · Post by **SlyJohnny** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:48 pm

Sgamerz sounds authoritative and informed. Let's let the gryphon eat our face.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:51 pm

Yeah, that sounds persuasive, changing my vote to letting us be eaten, but blaming Sgamerz should this turn out to be a bad idea.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 4:24 pm

You give a gasp of pain as the gryphon rips out your left eye. Lose 1 Life Point. If you can survive that, read on.
Suddenly filled with renewed strength, the gryphon goes bounding across the hall and claws the monstrous goat to the floor. When its foe stops twitching, it looks up and seems about to speak, only to look around as a third foe emerges from the inner recesses of the palace. This is a great snake as long as a ship, with venom running like stagnant water from its fangs. Its eyes burn red as the fires of Iblis the Despairer, lord of all evil spirits.
You look at the wounded gryphon. ‘What now?’ you ask with a groan. ‘Now,’ it says wearily, ‘the only way I can hope for victory is to drink the marrow of a human thigh-bone.’
Horror of horrors! Will you agree or run for your life?

So it sounds like the majority is on for SGamerz' plan to feed him more if the chance arose:

The great beak descends, cracking open your leg. You give a great shriek of agony and sink back with a groan. Lose 3 Life Points.
Even if you survive, you are barely conscious enough to witness the battle. It seems to your watery gaze as though the two monstrous adversaries are submerged in a red haze. With thundering howls and hissing war-cries, they twine and writhe in a battle that shakes the very walls around you. At last the gryphon is victorious. It comes padding across the golden tiles to your side.
‘That was the last,’ it says. ‘They slew my masters, who once dwelt here, but now I have avenged them.’
‘At what a cost!’ you wail. ‘See me – blinded, disfigured and crippled. Oh, merciful God, what have I done to merit such a fate?’

‘Come,’ says the gryphon. It leads you to a vestibule where you see a table of platinum that glints with a liquid sheen. On the table rest two objects: a sapphire the size of an eye, and a whole leg of burnished gold. Pressing the sapphire to your empty socket, you discover that you can see as well through it as you could with the eye you lost. The leg, too, knits to your flesh. It is as strong as your former limb.
Recover 5 Life Points. Also note that you have acquired the LUCK and AGILITY skills if you did not have them already. These are in addition to the skills you began the adventure with – that is, you may now have up to six skills instead of the usual limit of four.

This is one of the best rewards in the entire book. LUCK hasn't done shit for us in two playthroughs, but AGILITY alone would have saved us in the last one. Also we get to join Avenger in being a gamebook protagonist who has a magic jewel for an eye.

(D'Arcy has already noted a jasmine flower on her list of possessions.)

The gryphon returns with you to where the ship is still stuck in the boughs of the violet-blossomed tree. The sailors loosen their swords and one man brings out a bow and arrow, but you call out to them that the creature is your friend.
‘What harm can you do us now?’ says the captain in a despairing voice. ‘Has your devilish sorcery not brought us enough misfortune?’
The gryphon assures him that it intends no harm. ‘Let me take the mast of your vessel in my beak. I am strong enough to bear both ship and crew safely down to the waves.’

Urge the captain to accept its offer of help?
Think you would be better off trying a different plan?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: D'Arcy Windblade
Gender: Female
Skills: AGILITY, CUNNING, FOLKLORE, LUCK, MAGIC and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 10
Possessions:
1) Ring
2) Sword
3) Water Bottle
4) Whistle
5) Gloves
6) Jasmine Flower
7)
8)
Money: 5 dinars

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 5:12 pm

Continue trusting random flying thing.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:29 pm

Trusting the vampire griffon has been all upside so far.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Jun 07, 2019 2:07 am

The gryphon is as good as its word. Beating its wings with hurricane force, it pulls the ship clear of the branches and swoops down, bearing you off the edge of the cloud and down towards the azure water far below.
‘By the blessed Creator of All!’ gasps Captain Ibrahim, his face as white as the fluttering sails. ‘This is no voyage for a sailor.’
‘Cheer up,’ you tell him. ‘When you return to Baghdad, this will be a tale to match any that has ever been told.’
As the ship touches the waves, his look of drawn horror slowly gives way to a broad smile. ‘That’s true...’
The gryphon circles once and soars off into the sky. As one man, the crew fall to their knees and bow towards Mecca, thanking God for their safe deliverance.

The days stream by and you lose yourself completely in the tranquil pleasure of the sea’s rhythms. You can recover up to 2 Life Points if currently below your original score.
At night the stars look down upon your progress, blistering beacons placed in their courses by divine providence as a guide for seafarers. By day the sun shimmers from a sky of eggshell blue. You listen to the slow gentle creak of the rigging, the slosh of the waves, and the murmur of the ship’s boards. Gulls follow your course, hunting the fish that your passage stirs up to the surface.
Driven by north-east monsoon winds, you make good speed and in three weeks the peaks of the Scarlet Isle can be seen thrusting up from the horizon. Here you see the reddish tinge to the water that gives the island its name. ‘Some say it is the blood of the warlike tribes who live there,’ says one man in a voice hushed with fear of the unknown.
‘Bah!’ says the captain, hearing this. ‘It is nothing more than the minerals carried out to sea by the rivers.’
Finding an estuary, you cruise upstream until you see the roofs of a town. Buildings of mud-brick squat dustily amid the crags, fields laid out in front of them like rolling carpets of emerald and golden thread. As you tie up at the dock, a crowd of natives come down from the houses to meet you. They are garbed in long robes of beige cloth, belted at the waist, and each wears a long gold-hilted knife at his side.
Captain Ibrahim leaps ashore. ‘Stay with the ship,’ he tells the rest of you. ‘I’m going to speak with their headman.’ So saying, he strides off and is escorted by the natives back to a large building in the centre of the town.

Disembark?
Stay on board as ordered?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Jun 07, 2019 3:35 am

STAY!