[Let's Play] Virtual Reality Gamebooks: Necklace of Skulls

[Thaluikhain]

Look for giant

Tell him the true number, which is one hundred thousand million and seven

If that's going to be one of those "If you know the correct number, turn to that paragraph" things, this book is a bit bigger than I was expecting.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Do we note a code word for the magic ship?

No; it just exists to be a way to repair our ship without SEAFARING (with SEAFARING we would know enough about ships to be able to fix it without Jade Thunder's help. If we refused to help him it would check for that skill, and if we didn't have it we would be forced to help him anyways.) The really strange part is that this doesn't delete the codeword Eb (which is only deleted if you fix the ship yourself), which is the "ship was damaged" codeword, but I think that's a typo, so I'll delete it.

It doesn't come up again after this either way.

We have the codeword Sakbe, so:
Midnight Bloom agrees to a detour since it will give her the chance to buy some of the fine pottery that is brought from Nachan through the fens. Putting into a lagoon where there is a small fishing village, she tells you to be quick about checking the wizard’s story. ‘I would like to resume our journey to Tahil at first light,’ she says.
It is already late afternoon. The sun is trawling in the red net of his rays, abandoning the sky to dusk. ‘I won’t be long,’ you assure her.

Delete the codeword Olmek if you have it.
You walk along the shore as dusk gathers and the stars slowly emerge against the curtain of night. Ahead of you, nestling at the base of the cliffs, you see a massive round head that seems to be carved out of smooth black stone. It is taller than a man. As you get closer, it becomes possible to make out the features: a strong face with wide aristocratic nose, thick lips compressed in stern deliberation, heavy brows above eyes which stare impassively out to sea.
Then you realize you can hear muttering. A low quiet sound at the very limit of audibility. It sounds like someone counting: ‘Seventeen million and sixty-two, seventeen million and sixty-three…’
You step up to the head and say, ‘Excuse me.’ The huge eyes roll in their sockets with a stony scraping. You find yourself fixed with a disconcerting stare. The eyes hold that blank expression which lies on the far side of outrage and disbelief.
After a moment, the head’s gaze turns back to the starry sky. ‘One,’ you hear it say distinctly. ‘Two. Three…’
You give a polite cough. ‘There are one hundred thousand million and seven of them,’ you venture.
The huge eyes swivel back to study you again, this time filled with a look of cautious hope. ‘You’re sure? I thought mortal eyes could only see a few thousand stars.’
‘They can, but I was told the number by a magician.’
He gives a gravelly sigh. ‘I have been counting the stars since before the coming of man — but they kept moving, and often the daytime made me lose count. See, I’ve been here so long I’ve been buried up to my neck.’
You look at the sand and gravel, trying to imagine the huge body buried beneath it. Will you ask the giant for a favour, or do you think it is time to get on with planning your journey to Tahil?

If that's going to be one of those "If you know the correct number, turn to that paragraph" things, this book is a bit bigger than I was expecting.

Alas, it is not.

It's actually impossible to reach the giant without knowing the answer, although there's a way to learn it and find the giant in another path, which is how you get the keyword Olmek.

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Evening Star
Skills: CHARMS, FOLKLORE, SPELLS and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 10/10
Possessions:
1) Magic Amulet
2) Magic Wand
3) Sword
4)
5) Waterskin
6) Rope
7) Parcel of Salt
8) Jade Bead
Money: 5 cacao
Codewords: Sakbe

[SGamerz]

Usually for sidequests we directly get the reward. the fact that we are prompted to ask for one mean that we might get punished for being greedy. Just leave.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, don't bother the giant any more.

[Darth Rabbitt]

‘You have done me a service, and yet you ask no favour in return,’ rumbles the giant. ‘Hence I shall bestow my best gift: immortality.’
You wait, but nothing happens. You don’t feel any different. You raise your hands; you still look the same. ‘Is that it?’
‘Yes. Now your natural lifespan is infinite.’ ‘My natural lifespan?’ you say. A point like this is worth getting exactly right.
‘You will never die a natural death,’ the giant clarifies.
You don’t know what to say. ‘Er… well, thank you.’ Uppermost in your thoughts is that adventurers rarely die natural deaths in any case.
‘Also, you cannot suffer gradual injury,’ adds the giant. ‘A single fatal accident can kill you outright, but that is all.’
That sounds better. It means that from now on you cannot lose Life Points. You will not need to keep track of your Life Points for any reason, so cross that box off your Character Sheet. As the giant said, the only thing that can now kill you is an overwhelming catastrophe like falling into a volcano.

The giant does grant a single favor if you ask (you get your choice from a list of 3) and none of them screw you over (except that you lose out on immortality, and that's hella rad.)

The giant gives a hiccup and something white rolls out of his mouth onto the sand.
‘What’s that?’ you ask him.
‘Your brother’s skull,’ he replies. ‘Don’t thank me. Its proper place in the scheme of things is here with you. I’m just the instrument of destiny in this case.’
Tucking your brother’s skull into your haversack (remember to add it to your list of possessions), you set off along the beach. You have not gone more than a hundred paces when you hear a loud grunt followed by a damp sucking noise. You turn to see the giant hauling himself out of the ground. Throwing off the mass of sand and shingle that has accumulated around his body over aeons, he stands on the shore. He is big enough to climb the highest temple-pyramid with two bounds.
You watch as, with ponderous steps, he moves out to sea. When the water closes over the black dome of his head, you turn away with a feeling of awe.
(We have the codeword Sakbe.)

Two days’ sailing brings you to Tahil, a busy trading settlement on the far coast. The others squint warily as they bring the vessel in to the harbour. You can see at once there is trouble here. Instead of the stacks of trade goods that would normally be piled up along the quayside at a port like this, there are milling crowds of refugees carrying everything they own on their backs.
As you tie up at the quay, a man whose elegant clothing marks him as a lord of the Great City comes striding towards you. ‘I am commandeering your vessel,’ he says in a tone that brooks no disagreement. Without waiting for a reply, he turns and beckons his wife and children to join him. A couple of servants scurry along behind them, struggling under the weight of the family’s possessions.
If you want to prevent his appropriation of the vessel, you can employ ETIQUETTE, CUNNING or SWORDPLAY and a sword. If you are not bothered about him taking the vessel, you can just set out towards Shakalla.

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Evening Star
Skills: CHARMS, FOLKLORE, SPELLS and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 10/10 (immortal)
Possessions:
1) Magic Amulet
2) Magic Wand
3) Sword
4) Brother's Skull
5) Waterskin
6) Rope
7) Parcel of Salt
8) Jade Bead
Money: 5 cacao
Codewords: Sakbe

[Omegonthesane]

I want to suggest SWORDPLAY, but my preference would've been to negotiate a sale rather than to simply keep the ship.

Still, this isn't the kind of book where passing a skill check makes you fail, and most sword fights are more likely to be a matter of "lose life points" instead of "die instantly".

I suppose it's technically interesting that they don't allow for taking all your LP in damage in a single blow, but they could easily have just designed around that limitation.

[Thaluikhain]

Oh, read that wrong, thought he was one of the refugees at first.

Random rich person, use the sword.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Your sword lashes out, clattering loudly against the lord’s. The crowd stares in excitement and horror as the two of you circle warily. You see the lord’s wife draw her children protectively against her skirts. You lunge in close. Your opponent’s sword comes up in a desperate parry that breaks splinters off its obsidian edge. He grunts as a red weal appears across his arm, but he responds with a clubbing upswing of the sword hilt that leaves you stunned.
The fight goes on, carrying you to and fro across the quay. At last you score a mighty blow that slashes his hand, knocking his sword into the water. He gives a snarl which is as much annoyance as pain, then pulls his family off into the crowd.
You are bleeding from several deep cuts. Lose 2 Life Points. If you survive, you manage to bind your wounds with strips of cloth. Then, bidding your grateful travelling companions goodbye, you set out towards Shakalla.

Food will be hard to come by in the arid sierra, so you make sure to pluck fruits from the abandoned orchards lining the first few kilometres of the causeway. The causeway dwindles to a stony road, then a dirt track, and finally you are trudging through open country.
Your fruit soon gives out, but in the baking summer heat it is lack of water, not food, that is your main concern. Lose 1 Life Point unless you have either WILDERNESS LORE or a waterskin.
Days turn to weeks. At last you catch sight of the town of Shakalla in the distance, its pyramids trembling in a haze of heat and dust. Beyond it lies a grim grey shadow: the desert, stretched like a basking serpent along the edge of the world.

Shakalla is a walled town whose hard sun-baked streets are the colour of hot ash. At this time of day, the place is deserted. Those who have not fled in fear have retreated to the cool interiors of their houses, seeking refuge from the midday sun. You see a few faces peering from the narrow doorways as you go past. A dog lies stretched in the shade of a shop’s awning, panting with the heat.
Enter the shop?
Carry on to the west gate of town?

[Thaluikhain]

Visit the shop.

[SGamerz]

Shopping

[Darth Rabbitt]

Cool shade embraces you as you step into the shop’s interior. Your eyes adjust to the darkness. You call for service. A man rouses himself from his siesta and comes forward, blinking sleepily at you where you stand in the sunlit doorway as though you were a spirit that had emerged from the afterlife.
‘I am journeying into the desert,’ you announce, to his obvious amazement. ‘I’ll need supplies.’
He shows you the few items he has for sale in this impoverished town. They are:
 
A waterskin 4 cacao
A wand 16 cacao
A flint knife 1 cacao
A blowgun 3 cacao
A blanket 2 cacao
 
Buy whatever you wish (remembering to deduct the cost from your remaining money).

So what do we want to buy (if anything) and what do we want to drop from our inventory for it? We have 5 cacao.

[SGamerz]

Nothing looks interesting enough to sacrifice what we already have. Just leave.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, move on

[Darth Rabbitt]

A low tunnel in the wall around the town forms the west gate. Crouching as you make your way along the tunnel, you notice rough scrawlings in the stone. One shows a man with the tail and claws of a scorpion: another is of a four-headed dragon.
Two guards armed with spears stand at the far end of the tunnel, staring nervously out across the desert. As they hear you come up, they glance at you and one says, ‘Here’s a traveller who isn’t afraid to take the Gate of Exiles!’
Beyond, in the bright sunshine, lies the desert you must cross. The bleak stony landscape of crags and dusty gullies stretches off into a haze of heat along the horizon. A path leads from the gate, but it peters out beside a large boulder ten paces away.
You can question the guards about the markings on the tunnel walls or the nearby boulder, or you can simply set out into the desert.

[Thaluikhain]

Ask about the furry drawings.

[SGamerz]

Agreed. And if possible ask about the boulder too after that.

[Darth Rabbitt]

‘In times gone by, heretics and madmen were cast out from the town by this gate,’ says one of the guards. ‘As they went, some would scratch pictures of what they expected to find in the far west.’
‘That’s why it’s called the Gate of Exiles,’ says the other man. ‘I reckon you must be one of the few people who’ve taken this route by choice.’
‘I didn’t have a choice,’ you say.
Taking up your pack, you walk out into the waiting desert.

The sun looks like a funnel of flame in the shimmering oven of the sky. Through the soles of your sandals, the rock and sand feel as hot as cinders. The air seems thick with dust, but at nightfall the temperature plummets and you are chilled by a strong breeze.
If you have WILDERNESS LORE... If not, you must now decide whether to travel by day or by night.

[Omegonthesane]

We're warm blooded and can wear more shit so I'd guess by night

[Darth Rabbitt]

You have never seen so many stars as fill the desert sky after sunset. The night is full of soft sinister rustlings: snakes gliding across the sand, insects and scorpions scuttling unseen in the darkness. It is as eerie as venturing into the underworld. When the moon rises, it outlines the wind-blasted crags in a ghostly silver glow that makes them look like towering clouds.
By day you shelter under overhanging rocks – after first being sure to check that no venomous creatures have used the same patch of shade as a lair. Each evening, as the sun sinks in the west and the terrible heat of the day gives way to the cool of night, you take up your pack and journey on.
If you have a waterskin lose 1 Life Point. If you do not have a waterskin lose 3 Life Points. (Exception: if you have WILDERNESS LORE you are tougher than most people and lose 1 less Life Point.) Cross the waterskin off your Character Sheet as it is now empty.

Cliffs rise in front of you, and you make your way along them until you find a long shoulder of rock by which you are able to scale to the top.
You have gone only a little further when you hear a distant keening noise. It sounds like the wind, but you do not feel even a breath of air in the sultry stillness. Then you notice half a dozen long plumes of dust moving along the ground in your direction. Above each dust-plume is a dark twisting funnel of air. Whirlwinds — and they are bearing straight down on you. Superstitious dread crawls up your spine. You recall tales of the demons of the desert, who rip men limb from limb with the fury of their whirlwinds.
(We have FOLKLORE.)

The invisible demons of the desert are known to harness whirlwinds, which they ride pell-mell across the sand. It is said that on nights of the full moon they can even be seen crouched atop their captive whirlwinds — translucent unhuman figures with their faces raised shrieking to the sky.
The moon is not full tonight, and you are glad. You have no wish to see these monsters. Your only desire is to get rid of them, and to do that you must exploit their one weakness: once in full pursuit of a victim, they cannot veer quickly off a straight line.

You race back towards the clifftops with the whirling demons hot on your heels. You can hear the screeching wind as they rush across the sand. And is it just your imagination, or can you also hear another sound behind the wind — a sound like wild laughter?
You reach the cliff. The whirlwinds are right at your back. Trapped, you dive frantically to one side, landing heavily. You try to rise, but you are too exhausted to run any further.
Luckily you do not have to. The demons are unable to stop themselves, and pitch straight over the side of the cliff. You distinctly hear their cries of outrage and shock as the swirling eddies of dust and wind tumble downwards.
Breathing a sigh of relief, you set off again into the west.

Days pass. You have lost track of how long you have been travelling across the desert. The intense sun leeches the ground of all moisture and turns the horizon to a blaze of dazzling whiteness. Dusk brings no respite, but only an icy wind that leaves you shuddering inside your thin clothes. Your tongue is as dry as burnt paper, and blisters make every step a misery.
(We do have a waterskin.)

Thirst and weariness continue to sap your strength. Your small remaining supply of water is soon used up. Lose 2 Life Points. (Except if you have WILDERNESS LORE, in which case you ration your supplies more effectively and do not lose any Life Points.) Your waterskin is now used up. Cross it off your Character Sheet.

The palace of Necklace of Skulls cannot be far from here, since it is reputed to lie at the western rim of the world. With a wry glance at the shimmering sun, you set out across the dunes.
Thankfully the sun sets at last and the cool of evening comes on the breeze. By this time you are weary with heat and thirst, but you know you must press on to cover as much ground as possible. The stars emerge like a thousand gleaming pebbles seen in a stream. Moonlight soaks the sand in hues of charcoal and silver.
You reach the crest of a dune to find a dramatic scene unfolding before your eyes. Only thirty paces away, a warrior in a jaguar-hide cloak stands confronting a giant serpent with four heads. The warrior’s servant holds up a burning torch to give more light as his master moves forward. The torchlight looks like fresh blood along the monster’s gruesome fang-rimmed jaws.
Will you rush in to attack the monster, sneak off while the warrior is fighting it, or stand by and watch what happens?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Evening Star
Skills: CHARMS, FOLKLORE, SPELLS and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 10/10 (immortal)
Possessions:
1) Magic Amulet
2) Magic Wand
3) Sword
4) Brother's Skull
5)
6) Rope
7) Parcel of Salt
8) Jade Bead
Money: 5 cacao
Codewords: Sakbe

[Thaluikhain]

Rescue the random person.

[Omegonthesane]

Rescue the rando. Pretty sure we can trust our immortality powers now.

[Darth Rabbitt]

You rush down the side of the dune and past the warrior, ignoring his gasp of surprise. You are eager to have the glory of killing this creature. Note the codeword Angel on your Character Sheet.

The hydra rolls its massive coils across the sand towards you. It moves slowly, but its heads can strike out with lightning speed. You will need to keep your wits about you if you are to survive this battle.

Try dodging away from its attack?
Rush straight in towards it?
Stand your ground and make ready to parry?

Adventure Sheet:

Name: Evening Star
Skills: CHARMS, FOLKLORE, SPELLS and SWORDPLAY
Life Points: 10/10 (immortal)
Possessions:
1) Magic Amulet
2) Magic Wand
3) Sword
4) Brother's Skull
5)
6) Rope
7) Parcel of Salt
8) Jade Bead
Money: 5 cacao
Codewords: Angel, Sakbe

[SGamerz]

We're immortal, we can take some risk. Rush it.

(Yes, I know we can still die to insta-death sections, but I'm taking the gamble.)

[Omegonthesane]

Seconding rushing it.

[Darth Rabbitt]

The monster dips one of its necks close to the ground and swings it around behind your legs while another lunges towards your face.
If you have AGILITY, you can jump back over the neck that is trying to trip you while simultaneously ducking the attack of the other.
If you do not have AGILITY, you are caught a staggering blow and it is only by falling backwards that you avoid having your head torn off. Lose 2 Life Points and (if still able to scramble to your feet) will you try dodging away from its attack or stand your ground and make ready to parry?