The protagonist, however, is quite explicitly not the protagonist of Vault of the Vampire, but a random unrelated Allansian adventurer. You can imagine that the previous protagonist is living happily ever after with Nastassia, is on another and unrelated adventure, or has been horribly killed by some of the incidental villains of this book, as suits your fondness for grimdark.
From the back cover:
Standard FF Boilerplate rules:Count Heydrich, Vampire, is back from the dead!
A half-forgotten evil has arisen from the grave to stalk the Old World in search of fresh blood and new victims to enslave. Count Reiner Heydrich, undead Vampire Lord, is ancient beyond the reckoning of mortals. This time, however, there is someone on his trail, a brave hero who is determined that he shall not succeed in his evil plans. That someone is YOU!
Skill, Stamina, & Luck
[spoiler]SKILL score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. We roll a 2 and get 8.
STAMINA score: Roll two dice. Add 12 points to the result. We roll a 6+6 and get 24.
LUCK score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. We roll a 6 and get 12.
That would be ridiculously good if the 2 had been one of the middle two dice. As it is, we'll see, won't we? I will be rewinding if we die, and if it becomes apparent that we're dying because of the low Skill and no other reason, will likely reroll as well.
SKILL score reflects your expertise in combat, your ability with weapons, and your dexterity. STAMINA is your general constitution and "Life points" . LUCK score shows how lucky you are. None of them may exceed their Initial score unless specifically stated.
Testing your Luck: When instructed by the book to test Test your Luck, roll two dice. If the result is equal to or less than your current LUCK score, you are Lucky. If the result exceeds your current LUCK score, you are Unlucky. Whatever the outcome, you must deduct one point from your current LUCK score every time you Test your Luck. The more you use your LUCK, the less likely you are to be Lucky.
[/spoiler]
Combat
[spoiler]SKILL and STAMINA scores are given in the text for each adversary that you face.
The combat sequence is then:
1. Roll two dice for your opponent. Add the total rolled to its SKILL score. This is the Attack Strength of your enemy.
2. Roll two dice and add the total to your own current SKILL score. This is your Attack Strength.
3. If your Attack Strength is the higher, you have wounded your opponent: deduct 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA..
If your opponent's Attack Strength is higher, it has wounded you: deduct 2 points from your own STAMINA.
If both Attack Strengths are equal, you have avoided each other's blows.
4. Begin the next Combat Round, starting again at step 1. This procedure continues until either you or your opponent has a STAMINA score of zero. If your opponent's STAMINA score reaches zero, you have killed it and can continue with your adventure. If your own STAMINA score reaches zero, you are dead.
Often you will have to fight more than one opponent at a time. Sometimes you will treat them as a single opponent; at others, you will be able to fight them one at a time; and sometimes all of them will be able to attack you, while you defend yourself and may attack only one of them. Specific instructions will be given whenever you meet more than one opponent.
Using Luck in Combat
You can use your LUCK in combat to inflict a particularly serious wound, or to minimize a wound that has been inflicted on you.
Whenever you wound an opponent, you may Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound: deduct an extra 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA. If you are Unlucky, you have merely grazed it, and you deduct 1 point less than normal from its STAMINA.
If you have been wounded, you can Test your Luck in exactly the same way. If you are Lucky, the wound upon you was only a glancing blow and you can deduct 1 less point of STAMINA than usual. If you are Unlucky, the wound is serious: deduct 1 extra point from your STAMINA.[/spoiler]
Like in Vault of the Vampire:
Faith score:
[spoiler]Roll one die, add 3 to this number and enter the total as Your Faith score. We roll a 3 and get 6
Your Faith score indicates your purity of heart and the strength of your belief in the forces of good. A high score enables you to force certain evil creatures to flee from you when they sense and fear your valor; but it also means that they are more likely to notice you and be hostile towards you!
Your Faith may be shaken by certain perils during your adventure, but it may also be increased when you are victorious in very dangerous battles and when you find certain objects or relics of Good.
Your Faith score CAN be increased above its Initial value.[/spoiler]
Some new or new-ish stuff in this book:
Magic: It exists and has its own heading in the introduction. If we find any form of magic we can use we'll be instructed on how to use it.
Special Hazards: Curses, Plagues, and Poisons:
[spoiler](This is essentially the same as the Afflictions section of the Vault of the Vampire introduction, but both longer and more dangerous-sounding.) If you are poisoned or cursed, or pick up some terrible affliction from the bite of an infected creature, you will be in serious danger. You may even die swiftly if you cannot find an antidote, some healing, or magical help. (It continues in this vein, no pun intended, for two-thirds of a page.)[/spoiler]
Blood Points:
[spoiler]This starts at 10 and tracks your ability to weaken Count Heydrich. The higher it is, the better. Delay will cause it to decrease as he grows more powerful. It has neither an upper nor a lower boundary; this does mean it can become a negative number.[/spoiler]
Equipment and Provisions:
[spoiler]A sword, leather armor, a shield, a backpack, a lantern, and 12 Meals. Eating a Meal restores up to 4 points of STAMINA; you may only eat one Meal at a time. In this book you may eat whenever not in combat. And you may occasionally be told "you have just enough time to stuff food into your mouth before the enemy attacks, if you choose." You will sometimes be told "you must eat a Meal"; when this happens, you don't gain Stamina from it, just deduct the Meal. If you're told that and you have no Meals, take 2 points of damage.
You do not start with any kind of potion.[/spoiler]
Special Note:[spoiler]This gamebook, alone among Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks as far as I know, is buggy and unwinnable even with perfect rolls. I will be editing the bug. I will not mention when you get to that point; for one thing, saying "you originally actually couldn't..." would effectively tell you what you need to do there.[/spoiler]
Name: Suggestions welcomed.
BACKGROUND:
There is little call for the services of a warrior at this time of year in the town of Gummport, it seems. The eastern coastline of the Old World has been all too peaceful for some months.The people there grow fat and lazy, and they're not your type of folk at all. Bored and restless, you sit in a tavern in a miserable little village outside the town, wondering whether to return to Allansia or to seek more interesting and dangerous lands in the Old World. Then your eyes turn, as everyone else's do, to an old man who's been helped to a table beside a crackling log fire. He is tall, thin and stooped, with a livid scar running down his neck, and his hands shake a little as he puts a blackthom stick down beside the wooden chair into which he lowers himself painfully. He doesn't take off his heavy brown cloak and even next to the fire he seems cold. As his face glows in the reflected firelight, you see that his eyes are opaque and milky: the old man is blind. He seems to be entirely alone, for he was helped to his seat by the landlord's son, and now no one sits with him. In the tavem, a couple of shifty-eyed, rat-faced men--evil-looking sorts--are already gazing at him, and you guess they see him as a soft target. He may well end up in a back alley with a knife in his back if they get their way. Scowling at them so that they back away like the cowards they are, you walk over with the last of your meal and sit down beside him.
He is glad of your company and is happy to talk to you. After you have introduced yourself, he says his name is Henrik van der Termlen, from Mauristatia - as if his accent didn't give that away. He is on his way to visit a friend, a fellow scholar in one of the monasteries which throng the shores of Lake Libra. 'lt will be good to see old Sewarth again,' he says, 'although I wish the matter concerning us was not so evil, and time not so
short.'
He falls quiet,and sips his ale.
You ask him why he is travelling alone in these rough lands. 'l was not alone until yesterday,' he says quietly. 'But then Otto, my old friend and servant, did not wake from his bed. His body was cold and his face frozen into a terrible scream.' His hands fidget as if he was running them over his old friend's face again. 'He was murdered, poisoned. Clearly my enemy does not want me to reach my destination.'
For a moment you consider the possibility that he might be mad but he hasn't far to go and you feel sorry for him, so you offer to accompany him to the safety of the monastery. His face breaks into a smile. 'You are a good friend, I think,' he says happily. 'l will be glad of your company.I am tired and need to sleep now; however, I shall see you here in the morning. Though you have not asked,I have a little gold with me, and you will be rewarded for your kindness.' Before you can protest, he gets up and shuffles towards the bedrooms of the tavern, his stick tapping against the wall. You finish your supper and tum in yourself.
In the morning, there is no sign of Henrik at breakfast, so you go to his room. You knock twice on the door, but there is no reply. Uneasily, you open the door and, entering, you are appalled at what you see. The old man has been killed. A heavy-bladed knife protrudes from the crumpled body lying on the blood-soaked bed. Horrified, you reel away and your foot catches on a small wooden box sticking out from under the bed; as you trip over, the lid falls open and some papers and gold pieces spill on to the floor.
You pick up the papers and look at them: they are notes addressed to Sewarth and, though you don't mean to pry, you can't help glancing through them.
Much of what is written here makes little sense to you, but it is clear that Henrick has been hunting an evil fugitive from Mortvania whose name is Count Reiner Heydrich: Henrik documents his terrible life and his eventual slaying. The man was a monster: Henrik tells of the murders of hundreds of peasants by impaling, the draining of their blood and much worse. Then your eyes take in the following words.
. . . though Heydrich was slain, he could not be destroyed for ever. Somewhere, his life force is contained in a magical artefact which will protect him, although I have not yet learned what this is. I do know that destroying it will be vital, otherwise the Vampire will be invulnerable. He longs for revenge after he was vanquished in Mortvania. Now, he can become far stronger than ever he was in that wretched land.
You are stunned. Henrick was a Vampire hunter, it seems! The last of the notes begs Sewarth to research the Soul Jewel and discover its nature. These must be copies of letters sent by Henrik to the scholar-monk. If the latter replied, Henrik doesn't have the letters with him.
What should you do now? Henrik is past human aid. You are angry at the cowardly murderers who slew a helpless blind man, but you do not know who they are and you cannot find them and bring them to justice. All you can do now is to take these papers to Sewarth and hope that Henrik's research will come to fruition. A Vampire - the most feared of all the undead, a leecher of life and blood,an appalling evil! Yes, you will take Henrik's letters to the monk. That, at least, you can do.
You hesitate as you look at the gold on the floor. If you leave it, in all likelihood the thieves of the tavern will soon take it. You have a choice at the start of your adventure. If you want to leave here at once and head for Lake Libra,tum to paragraph 1. If you decide to take the gold, turn to paragraph 51. Please vote by midnight EST to be sure it will be counted.
Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]
Name: ???
Skill: 8/8
Stamina: 24/24
Luck: 12/12
Faith: 6
Blood Points: 10
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor, Shield, Backpack, Lantern
Provisions: 12 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Gold Pieces: 0
Special Notes:
[/spoiler]
Description of Fighting Fantasy Mini-Adventures
Prey of the Hunter: A futuristic law enforcement agent, you are stranded on a backwater planet and hunted by a powerful, sadistic alien. You must survive long enough to escape.
Bones of the Banished: The chieftain of your tribe has died without an heir. With the other young warriors, you must venture out and hunt for trophies; the one who brings back the most impressive trophy will become the new chieftain.
Queen of Shades: A female Sightmaster and worshiper of Libra, Goddess of Justice in Khare, you find your recent actions have earned a deadly curse. Can you survive long enough to see it lifted? (This is set in the same world as the Sorcery! tetralogy.)
Vengeance at Midnight: Rumors suggest that a new supervillain has deadly plans in Titan City. Jean Lafayette, the Silver Crusader, must prevent them. (This is a sequel to Appointment with F. E. A. R., which has a current Let's Play being played here now.)
Ascent of Darkness: The Caarth horde threatens your home, but you fight them with the power--and the epic failings--of Perseus, Heracles, or Odysseus. However, a letter telling you of your father's death calls you home to deal with a more mysterious threat.
Six-Gun Friday: In the Old West, you are the Marshall of the town of Bent Reed when the infamous band of outlaws, the Friday Clan, begin terrorizing your town. Defeating one member of the gang is more than any lawman has yet been able to do, but you are determined to stop them all permanently.
